William Edward Boeing was born in Detroit, Michigan on October 1, 1881. He was the son of a wealthy timber merchant. Boeing dropped out of Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1903 before finishing his engineering degree and moved to Gray's Harbor, Washington. There he started and was president of a timber business called Greenwood Logging Company. The business was very successful and lucrative for Boeing and probably allowed him to later invest in his soon to be acquired interest in aviation. (1)
             In 1908, he took the fortune from his timber business and moved to Seattle, buying Heath's Shipyard on the Duwamish River. This shipyard later becomes Boeing's first airplane factory. (2) During the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909, Boeing saw a manned flying machine for the first time. He also explored the possibilities of aviation during conversations at Seattle's University Club with George Conrad Westervelt, a Navy engineer. (3)
             Boeing became really fascinated with aviation in 1910 after he went to an air show in Los Angeles, California. In 1915, William Boeing returned to California to take flying lessons from another aviation pioneer, Glenn Martin, whom he also purchased a Martin seaplane from. (1)
             After flying different planes, Boeing became convinced that he could build a better plane than current models. He asks his engineering friend George Conrad Westervelt to design a new and better airplane. Construction of a twin-float seaplane begins in Boeing's boathouse and they name it the B&W, after their initials. On June 15, Boeing takes the first B&W seaplane on its maiden flight. (2)
             Encouraged by his first effort, Boeing begins his own plane-building company, Pacific Aero Products, in 1906. When America entered the World War I in April 1917, Boeing changed the name his company to Boeing Airplane Company. Knowing the Navy needed planes for WWI Boeing had one of
             ...