User Guide

Flight Simulator
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Microsoft
Boeing Company
In 1903, the same year that the Wright brothers
made their revolutionary flight, a young man
named William Boeing left Yale engineering
school for the West Coast. He made his fortune
trading timberlands, moved to Seattle, Washing-
ton, and soon became interested in the new field
of aviation.
After learning to fly with aviation legend Glenn
Martin in 1915, Boeing and a partner decided
they could build a better flying machine. On the
morning of the first test flight of their B&W
floatplane, Boeing became impatient waiting for
his pilot and took the controls, piloting the first
flight of a Boeing aircraft himself.
World War I inaugurated the first production
orders for Boeing aircraft. By the end of 1918, 337
people were on the Boeing payroll (a number that
would one day swell into the tens of thousands).
Fighter pursuit planes were built for the Army Air
Service, and the Navy bought 71 NB trainers
during this time. With the Model 15 and the P–12/
F4B series, Boeing became the leading producer
of fighters for the next decade.
Bill Boeing and pilot Eddie Hubbard flew a Boeing
C–700 to make the first international airmail
delivery in 1919. By 1929 the three-engine,
twelve-passenger Model 80, Boeing’s first model
built specifically for passenger transport, was in
the air. Boeing was now one of the largest aircraft
manufacturers in the country. Fueled by further
expansion, the company’s interests soon included
several airlines, among them the future United
Airlines.
An antitrust breakup of the company in 1934 left
Bill Boeing disheartened, and he left the aviation
business to raise horses. The company leadership
kept the company name and the Boeing vision for
the future: a focus on large airliners and bombers.
Boeing’s contribution to the war effort during
World War II included the construction of
thousands of the legendary B–17 Flying Fortress
and B–29 Superfortress bombers. Once the war
was over, the company turned its attention back
to civilian as well as military development and
production. Along with the Stratocruiser (the last
propeller-driven plane Boeing would build), the
company produced America’s first swept-wing jet
bomber, the B–47, and the giant B-52 bomber (still
on the front lines today, though production
ceased more than three decades ago).
The demands of the flying public in the post-war
world made it clear that jet transports were
necessary to haul more people longer distances
at faster speeds. Boeing was able to make
significant inroads into this market by putting the
707 jetliner into service before Douglas Aircraft
Company (later McDonnell Douglas and now part
of Boeing) launched their DC–8. Using about one-
tenth the fuel of an ocean liner, the $5 million 707
could carry as many transatlantic passengers a
year as the $30 million Queen Mary.
Boeing has continued as a leader in airliner
innovation and military/aerospace technology. The
company ushered in the jumbo era in the early
1970s with the 747 and continued to develop
short-haul airliners—including the world’s most
successful jetliner, the Boeing 737. Military and
aerospace projects have included work on NASA
space programs, the cruise missile, and the B–2
bomber. Boeing aircraft have been the presiden-
tial choice for Air Force One for 40 years.
More than 80% of the world’s jetliners are Boeing
aircraft. The company’s commercial, military,