The Boeing Company is an American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide.[3] The company also provides leasing and product support services. Boeing is among the largest global aerospace manufacturers; it is the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world based on 2022 revenue[4] and is the largest exporter in the United States by dollar value.[5] Boeing was founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington.[6] The present corporation is the result of the merger of Boeing with McDonnell Douglas on August 1, 1997.
As of 2023, the Boeing Company's corporate headquarters is located in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia.[7] The company is organized into three primary divisions: Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), and Boeing Global Services (BGS). In 2021, Boeing recorded $62.3billion in sales.[8] Boeing is ranked 54th on the Fortune 500 list (2020),[9] and ranked 121st on the Fortune Global 500 list (2020).[10]
History
Origins
The Boeing Company started in 1916, when American lumber industrialist William E. Boeing founded Pacific Aero Products Company in Seattle, Washington. Shortly before doing so, he and Conrad Westervelt created the "B&W" seaplane.[11] In 1917, the organization was renamed Boeing Airplane Company, with William Boeing forming Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation in 1928.[12] In 1929, the company was renamed United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, followed by the acquisition of several aircraft makers such as Avion, Chance Vought, Sikorsky Aviation, Stearman Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, and Hamilton Metalplane.
In 1931, the group merged its four smaller airlines into United Airlines. In 1934, aircraft manufacturing was required to be separate from air transportation.
Divisions
The company's three divisions are Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; and Global Services.[43]
- Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) builds commercial aircraft including the 737, 767, 777, and 787 along with freighter and business jet variants of most. The division employs nearly 35,000 people, many working at the company's manufacturing facilities in Everett and Renton, Washington (outside of Seattle), and South Carolina.
- Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) builds military airplanes, rotorcraft, and missiles, as well as space systems for both commercial and military customers, including satellites, spacecraft, and rockets.
- Boeing Global Services (BGS) provides aftermarket support, such as maintenance and upgrades, to customers who purchase equipment from BCA, BDS, or other manufacturers.
Safety defects and airplane crashes
Boeing 737 MAX crashes and groundings
In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX narrow-body passenger airplanes crashed, leaving 346 people dead and no survivors. In response, aviation regulators and airlines around the world grounded all 737 MAX airliners.[44] A total of 387 aircraft were grounded.[45] Boeing's reputation, business, and financial rating suffered after the groundings, as Boeing's strategy, governance, and focus on profits and cost efficiency were questioned.[46][47][48]
Environmental record
In 2006, the UCLA Center for Environmental Risk Reduction released a study showing that Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a site that was a former Rocketdyne test and development site in the Simi Hills of eastern Ventura County in Southern California, had been contaminated by Rocketdyne with toxic and radioactive waste. Boeing agreed to a cleanup agreement with the EPA in 2017.[73] Clean-up studies and lawsuits are in progress.[74]
Boeing reported that each one of the jets it delivered in 2020 will add an average of one million tons of carbon dioxide to the Earth's atmosphere.[75] It was also estimated that the planes sold in 2020 will produce about 158 million tonnes of CO2.[76]
Climate change is impacting Boeing in the form of increased risks associated with extreme weather events, supply chain disruptions, and tough climate regulations. Boeing is forced to deal with increased operational and financial pressures associated with reducing carbon emissions and finding sustainable solutions.
Political contributions, federal contracts, advocacy and criticism
In 2007 and 2008, the company benefited from over US$10 billion of long-term loan guarantees, helping finance the purchase of their commercial aircraft in countries including Brazil, Canada, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates, from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, some 65% of the total loan guarantees the bank made in the period.[83]
In 2008 and 2009, Boeing was second on the list of Top 100 US Federal Contractors, with contracts totaling US$22 billion and US$23 billion respectively.[84][85] Between 1995 and early 2021, the company agreed to pay US$4.3 billion to settle 84 instances of misconduct, including US$615 million in 2006 in relation to illegal hiring of government officials and improper use of proprietary information.[86][87][88]
Financials
The key trends of Boeing are (as at the financial year ending December 31):[127]
Between 2010 and 2018, Boeing increased its operating cash flow from $3 to $15.3billion, sustaining its share price, by negotiating advance payments from customers and delaying payments to its suppliers. This strategy is sustainable only as long as orders are good and delivery rates are increasing.[150]
From 2013 to 2019, Boeing spent over $60 billion on dividends and stock buybacks, twice as much as the development costs of the 787.[151]
In 2020, Boeing's second quarter revenue was $11.8 billion as a result of the pandemic slump. Due to higher sales in other divisions and an influx in deliveries of commercial jetliners in 2021, second quarter revenue increased by 44%, reaching nearly $17 billion.[152]
Employment numbers
The company's employment totals are listed below.
Approximately 1.5% of Boeing employees are in the Technical Fellowship program, a program through which Boeing's top engineers and scientists set technical direction for the company.[156] The average salary at Boeing was $76,784 in 2011, as reported by former employees.[157]
Corporate governance
In 2022, Rory Kennedy made a documentary film, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, streamed by Netflix.[158] She said about the 21st-century history of Boeing "There were many decades when Boeing did extraordinary things by focusing on excellence and safety and ingenuity. Those three virtues were seen as the key to profit. It could work, and beautifully. And then they were taken over by a group that decided Wall Street was the end-all, be-all."[159]
On May 5, 2022, Boeing announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Additionally, it plans to add a research and technology center in Northern Virginia.[160]
In July 2024, it announced a new CEO, Kelly Ortberg.[161][162]
See also
- Boeing Everett Factory – main production facility for commercial widebody aircraft
- Competition between Airbus and Boeing
- Downfall: The Case Against Boeing – Netflix film on the long history of safety shortcuts, corporate mismanagement and coverups of the 737 MAX
- Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour – Corporate public museum
- United Aircraft Corporation
- United States Air Force Plant 42
Further reading
External links
- The Joystick (Boeing Aircraft Club) – The Museum of Flight Digital Collections
References
- Howard R. Jarrell. Directory of Corporate Name Changes Scarecrow Press, 1993^
- General Information Boeing, retrieved March 25, 2024^
- Kyle Bernal. What Are the Top Boeing Government Contracts? executivegov.com, December 23, 2022, retrieved June 8, 2023