On May 14, 1954, Boeing, now one of the world's largest commercial aerospace companies, introduced its first jet-powered commercial airliner, the Model 367-80 prototype, at its Renton Field plant on the South Coast. of Lake Washington in Washington State. , where passenger planes are still manufactured.
The 367-80 would eventually be retired on January 22, 1970, but not before its technology was used to create the famous 707 model and, later, the hugely successful 737.
Airlines were initially cautious about adopting the aircraft technology, citing concerns about expense and noise levels, among other things. However, the successful test flights of the 367-80 demonstrated the advances aviation had made in terms of higher speeds and altitudes.
Ultimately, this success laid the foundation for Boeing's 707 aircraft, which was launched in 1957. The American airline group Pan Am began scheduled 707 flights on October 26, 1958, indicating the wider acceptance of the aircraft. reaction from the industry. Before the 707, propeller-driven aircraft had dominated commercial air travel.
The Boeing model 737 was launched in 1967 and would become the most commercially successful aircraft in the history of aviation.
However, in recent years Boeing has suffered a series of technical failures. More recently, a Boeing 737 carrying 85 people caught fire and skidded off the runway at Senegal's main airport, injuring 10 people, including the pilot, while a Boeing 767 cargo plane was forced to make a crash landing. emergency after a failure in the front landing gear.
Last week, Boeing was forced to postpone the launch of its new CST-100 Starliner capsule, designed for launch into space, after engineers detected a problem with a valve on the rocket.
Here's a timeline of some of Boeing's ups and downs over the last century.
A century in the air: some of Boeing's highs
The company, which was first founded as Pacific Aero Products Co by William Boeing in 1916, was officially renamed Boeing Airplane Co in 1917, shortly after the United States entered the war. During the war, Boeing provided Model C training aircraft to the U.S. Navy, designed a new patrol “floatplane,” and signed a contract with the U.S. Navy to build 50 Curtiss HS-2L seaplanes. .
In 1917, he also produced the first American-designed and built bomber aircraft and his Martin MB-1 bomber made its first flight.
During World War II, Boeing produced bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress. The B-29 Superfortress aircraft, named Enola Gay and Bockscar, were the two aircraft used to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The atomic bombing caused almost 200,000 victims. The long-term effects on survivors would lead to radiation illnesses and cancers such as leukemia, thyroid cancer, and lung cancer, due to radiation exposure.
- Launch of the 737 plane
One of Boeing's most important contributions to commercial aviation was the 737 series of aircraft, launched in 1967. The model would become one of the best-selling commercial airliners in aviation history. Almost 12,000 have been built.
During the Apollo program, in which American astronaut Neil Armstrong eventually became the first person to walk on the Moon, Boeing built the first Saturn V rocket in 1967. That same model of rocket would be used for the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. , taking astronauts to the moon.
- Boeing, the multi-billion dollar company
Boeing first achieved $1 billion in sales in 1956. It was publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol BA, in January 1978 and is currently valued at $109.5 billion.
What fatal accidents have Boeing airplanes been involved in?
More than 100 years after Boeing was founded, Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 domestic passenger flight, crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang. , Indonesia, en route to Depati Amir. Pangkal Pinang Airport, killing all 189 people on board on October 29, 2018. An investigation by Indonesian authorities attributed the incident to a combination of a plane design defect that forced the plane to descend, inadequate training and problems maintenance, a year later.
- Ethiopian Airlines crash, 2019
Less than a year after the Lion Air incident, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, also a Boeing 737 MAX 8 and a scheduled international passenger flight from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, crashed near the Ethiopian city of Bishoftu just six minutes after takeoff on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 people on board. The same technical problem that was found in the Lion Air case was also discovered.
The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide due to concerns about a faulty sensor that had caused its Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) to continually pitch the plane downward, causing it to sink.
As a result of the controversy over the design defect, Boeing's board of directors removed CEO Dennis Muilenburg as president, but allowed him to remain as CEO.
The FAA finally cleared the Boeing 737 MAX to resume flights in November 2020, after the issue was fixed, but Boeing had already been heavily criticized by the US House of Representatives Transportation Committee for not taking better measures. security measures.
What incidents with Boeing airplanes have occurred this year?
- Alaskan Airlines door panel explosion, January
In January of this year, a door panel on Alaskan Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, exploded, causing a rapid decompression and forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport. Some passengers suffered minor injuries, but no one was killed or seriously injured. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) immediately grounded all 737 Max 9s, of which 171 were in use worldwide. Loose hardware was reported in an initial investigation.
The incident sparked an avalanche of conspiracy theories that have increased in the past three months due to the deaths of two Boeing whistleblowers.
John Barnett, a quality assurance engineer who worked for Boeing for more than three decades, was found dead in March 2019. His body was discovered with a gunshot wound and a suicide note in his truck, which was parked in the parking lot of a hotel in South Carolina.
Two weeks ago, Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor for Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, died in an Oklahoma hospital from a staph infection that quickly turned into pneumonia.
- An Air Senegal plane skids off the runway in May
A plane chartered by Air Senegal Boeing B737-300 skidded off the runway before taking off in the early hours of Thursday, May 9, at Blaise Diagne International Airport in the capital, Dakar. Eighty-five people, including two pilots and four cabin crew, were on board the flight operated by TransAir bound for Bamako, the capital of Mali. At least 10 people were injured, the Transport Ministry said.
Photos showed the damaged plane stopped in a grass field with a damaged wing and emergency exit slides deployed.
Videos shared on social media appeared to show a left wing on fire.
- FedEx flight makes emergency landing in May
On Wednesday, May 8, a Boeing 767 cargo plane belonging to FedEx made an emergency landing in Istanbul, Turkey, after its front landing gear failed. No one was injured and the crew successfully evacuated the plane.
- A Corendon Airlines plane burst a tire, May
Also in Turkey, 190 people, including six crew members, were safely evacuated from a Corendon Airlines Boeing 737-800 after one of the plane's tires exploded on Thursday, May 9, during landing in Gazipasa, a airport near the Mediterranean coastal city. from Alanya.
- Boeing Starliner launch halted in May
Boeing canceled the inaugural crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner space capsule on Monday, May 7, after engineers detected a problem with the valve on the Atlas V rocket. The decision to cancel the launch on Monday came two hours before the scheduled liftoff and about an hour after two NASA astronauts boarded the spacecraft.
NASA chief Bill Nelson posted on X: “Giving up on tonight's launch attempt. As I said before, @NASA's first priority is safety. We will leave when we are ready.”
Is Boeing's safety record under investigation?
Boeing has been the subject of 32 whistleblower complaints filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the workplace safety regulator, in the United States over the past three years.
U.S. aviation safety officials are also investigating whether Boeing employees falsified inspection records for the 787 Dreamliner.
Sam Salehpour, another whistleblower and quality engineer who worked for Boeing for 10 years, said he had safety concerns regarding the 787 Dreamliner. Last month, Salehpour testified at a congressional hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the safety of the 777 and 787 airliners.
He stated: “I have analyzed Boeing's own data to conclude that the company is taking manufacturing shortcuts on the 787 program that may significantly reduce the safety and life cycle of the aircraft.”
Boeing strongly refuted the claims, saying it has “full confidence in the 787 Dreamliner.”
