Posted in images, Object, tagged aircraft engineering, aircraft industry, airplanes, B & W, Boeing, hangars, seaplanes, transportation on July 15, 2009|
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On July 15, 1916, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporated Pacific Aero Products (later, Boeing). The airplane company was started in the hangar on the shore of Lake Union in Seattle, Washington, in December of 1915. The first airplane produced at this small factory was B & W seaplane, named after its designers, Boeing and Westervelt. The seaplane, constructed of spruce lumber, steel wire, and linen fabric, made its first successful flight over Lake Union on June 15, 1916. Only two B & W seaplanes were built; both were sold to the New Zealand government to be used for pilot training there.
On the photo below, courtesy of Seattle Historical Society Collection, part of a larger King County Snapshots: A photographic heritage of Seattle and surrounding communities digital collection, men are pulling B & W into Boeing Seaplane Hangar on Lake Union, Seattle, in 1916.

Men pulling B & W into Boeing Seaplane Hangar on Lake Union, Seattle, 1916
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