Boeing Company

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Founded in 1916, Boeing grew into one of the world’s largest aerospace companies, spanning commercial aviation, defense, and space.

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Boeing is an American aerospace manufacturer and a leading producer of commercial aircraft. It also produces military aircraft, helicopters, weapons and missile systems, satellites, and spacecraft and provides maintenance, parts, training, and other services to commercial and government customers. Boeing expanded its aerospace and defense operations through its acquisition of Rockwell International Corporation’s aerospace and defense units in 1996 and its merger with McDonnell Douglas Corporation in 1997.

Formerly Boeing Airplane Company, the company assumed its current name in 1961 to reflect its expansion into fields beyond aircraft manufacture. It is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, and as of December 31, 2025, had about 182,000 employees, 14% of them outside the United States.

Boeing operates through three main business units: Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; and Global Services.

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A Boeing 777X taking off from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, on its first flight, January 25, 2020. The 777X family comprises the 777-8 and larger 777-9.

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The 787-10 is the largest member of Boeing’s Dreamliner family.

© Boeing

Boeing produces the 737, 767, 777, and 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The narrow-body 737 is assembled in Renton, Washington. In 2026, Boeing opened an additional 737 production line in Everett, Washington.

The wide-body Boeing 767 and 777 aircraft are assembled at the Everett plant, where the 777X is also in production. The company’s 787s are assembled at a facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Boeing Business Jets, established in 1996 as a joint venture between Boeing and General Electric (GE), makes and markets business jets based on the 737 MAX, 787 Dreamliner, and 777X.

This unit develops military aircraft, weapons, surveillance and intelligence systems, satellites, and space systems. Its military aircraft programs include:

In partnership with Bell Textron, Boeing builds the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. The company also produces the Harpoon anti-ship missile and Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) cruise missile.

Boeing has played a major role in the International Space Station, designing and building much of its U.S. segment. The company turned over responsibility for that segment to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2010 and has continued to provide engineering support, capability enhancements, and processing for laboratory experiment racks.

The company has also developed the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as part of NASA’s commercial crew program. Designed to transport astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station, Starliner completed its first crewed test flight in 2024 but hadn’t been certified for regular crewed missions as of mid-2026.

Boeing produces the core stage for the Space Launch System, the rocket used in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. The company also builds the X-37B, a reusable, uncrewed spaceplane used for technology testing and experimentation. Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) jointly own the United Launch Alliance, which makes and operates the Vulcan Centaur launch rocket.

The company and its subsidiary, Millennium Space Systems, build satellites for defense and commercial customers.

This division provides support for commercial and military aircraft and other aerospace systems. Its services include maintenance and modifications, spare parts, supply chain and logistics support, engineering, pilot and maintenance training, and digital services and data analysis.

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A Boeing Delta IV Medium+ launches GOES-N, a U.S. weather satellite, on May 24, 2006.

Carleton Bailie/NASA

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The partially assembled International Space Station, photographed from the space shuttle Endeavour on December 9, 2000, after installation of a large solar array.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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Originally used for boatbuilding, the Red Barn became the engineering offices and manufacturing plant of William Boeing’s fledgling aircraft company in 1916.

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Workers constructing HS-2L flying boats for the U.S. Navy at Boeing’s Seattle factory, c. 1917–19.

National Archives, Washington, D.C.

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A Boeing B-9 bomber accompanied by a P-26, the first monoplane fighter produced for the U.S. Army Air Corps, 1932.

U.S. Air Force photograph

Boeing’s origin dates to 1916, when the American timber merchant William E. Boeing founded Aero Products Company shortly after he and U.S. Navy officer Conrad Westervelt developed a single-engine, two-seat seaplane, the B&W. Renamed Boeing Airplane Company in 1917, the enterprise built “flying boats” for the Navy during World War I, and in the 1920s and ’30s it successfully sold its trainers, pursuit planes, observation craft, torpedo planes, and patrol bombers to the U.S. military.

In the late 1920s Boeing Airplane expanded into airmail services, and in 1928 William Boeing formed Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation to encompass both manufacturing and airline operations. The next year the company was renamed United Aircraft and Transport Corporation and acquired several aircraft makers, among them Chance Vought, Avion (which became Northrop Aircraft), Stearman Aircraft, Sikorsky Aviation, engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, and aircraft and propeller maker Hamilton Metalplane. In 1931 it combined four smaller airlines under its ownership into United Airlines.

In 1934, under new U.S. antitrust legislation (the Air Mail Act of 1934), aircraft manufacture was required to be divorced from air transport, and a newly incorporated Boeing Airplane Company became one of the three companies to emerge from the dissolution of United Aircraft and Transport. The other two were United Aircraft Corporation (later United Technologies Corporation) and United Airlines.

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A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress flying near its base in England during World War II.

National Archives, Washington, D.C.

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Two Boeing B-29s in flight over Laredo Army Air Field in Texas on Army Air Forces Day, August 1, 1945.

Air Force Historical Research Agency

Prior to and during World War II, Boeing Airplane Company built several famous commercial aircraft, such as the Model 247 twin-engine monoplane, the Model 314 flying boat (one of Pan American’s Clipper-class aircraft), and the Model 307 Stratoliner, the first airliner with a pressurized cabin. Boeing’s legendary bombers, the B-17 Flying Fortress (first flown in 1935) and the B-29 Superfortress (1942), played key roles in the Allied war effort in World War II. In the postwar years, Boeing continued its military commitments with the six-engine B-47 Stratojet (1947) and eight-engine B-52 Stratofortress (1952) jet bombers.

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The Boeing 707 helped establish Boeing as a major commercial-aircraft manufacturer after entering passenger service in 1958.

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A U.S. Air Force KC-135A Stratotanker taking off during a test of experimental winglets, mid-1970s.

NASA/Dryden Research Aircraft Movie Collection

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A United Airlines Boeing 737-522, a variant of Boeing’s long-running 737 family.

Dylan Ashe

A Boeing 747 undergoing a D-check, an extensive maintenance inspection in which much of the aircraft is disassembled and examined.

Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz

Although Boeing was successfully selling military aircraft, its commercial products lagged behind those of rivals Douglas and Lockheed. To compete in the fierce and expanding world market after World War II, the company decided to develop an airliner, powered by turbojets, with enough range to cross the North Atlantic. After initial hesitation from airlines (most of which had committed to popular and less-expensive propeller-driven airliners from rival firms), but buttressed by sales to the U.S. Air Force in the form of an aerial tanker (the KC-135 Stratotanker), the four-engine plane, designated the 707, went into commercial service in 1958 on a Pan American transatlantic route. The aircraft quickly won over passengers with its shorter flight time and smoother ride and subsequently helped to revolutionize air travel.

The 707 was followed by the 727 trijet and 737 twinjet, which entered service in 1964 and 1968, respectively. The 737 was developed into a modern family of planes, and by the end of the 20th century it had become the world’s best-selling commercial aircraft. The high development costs of the 747 “jumbo jet,” the world’s first wide-body jetliner, almost forced Boeing into bankruptcy, but when the 400-seat aircraft went into service in 1970, it allowed airlines to offer affordable long-range air travel for the general public and gave Boeing a monopoly position in this market segment.

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An X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft, built by North American Aviation, separating from a Boeing B-52 during an air launch on June 21, 1960.

NASA

In 1960, Boeing purchased Vertol Corporation, then the world’s largest independent manufacturer of helicopters. As Boeing Helicopters, the unit focused on tandem-rotor helicopters and was responsible for the development of the CH-47 Chinook and CH-46 Sea Knight military transport helicopters (first flown in 1961 and 1962, respectively). Boeing’s work on missiles, which began in 1945, resulted in such weapons as the silo-launched Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (deployed in 1962) and the AGM-86B/C air-launched cruise missile (deployed in 1982).

In the space sector during the 1960s and ’70s, Boeing built the Lunar Orbiters, NASA’s first spacecraft to orbit the Moon (1966–67), and the Mariner 10 space probe, which took the first close-up pictures of the surface of Mercury (1974–75). It also designed and built the first stage of the Saturn V rockets that sent Apollo astronauts to the Moon and the battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicles used in the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions.

In 1976, Boeing was selected to develop the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), a two-stage vehicle designed to deliver payloads to higher orbits after launch aboard the space shuttle or rockets such as the Titan.

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A United Airlines Boeing 777-200 departing Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on January 30, 2023.

© Nicolas Economou—NurPhoto/Getty Images

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An American Airlines Boeing 767, a wide-body jetliner that Boeing first flew in 1981.

Adrian Pingstone

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A Continental Airlines Boeing 757, c. 2005. Boeing developed the single-aisle jetliner alongside the wide-body 767.

Adrian Pingstone

In the 1960s and ’70s, Boeing also diversified into areas such as marine craft (hydrofoils), transit systems, energy production, and agriculture, but later refocused on aerospace.

In 1981, the company first flew its twin-engine, wide-body Boeing 767, followed the next year by its twin-engine, single-aisle 757. By featuring a common flight deck for the two aircraft, pilots who trained and qualified on one plane could also fly the other, reducing cost and increasing productivity for carriers. This concept of commonality also applied to more than 40% of all 757-767 parts.

For its next jetliner, the twin-engine, wide-body 777, Boeing involved several key airlines in the development process in order to ensure that market needs and customer preferences were satisfied. Advances in computers and computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software allowed Boeing to develop the 777 entirely on computers without having to build a physical mock-up of the airplane. The first flight took place in 1994.

In 1991, the U.S. Air Force chose a design offered by a consortium comprising Lockheed, Boeing, and General Dynamics for a twin-engine advanced tactical fighter with stealth features; the aircraft was named the F-22 Raptor and was first flown in 1997.

In 1996, Boeing and Lockheed Martin received U.S. defense contracts to build competitive technology demonstrators for the Joint Strike Fighter, intended as an affordable, next-generation, multirole fighter for the armed services of the United States and Britain.

In 1995, Boeing joined Russia’s RSC-Energia, Ukraine’s KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash, and Norway’s Kvaerner Maritime to form Sea Launch, a commercial launch services company that sent satellites into geostationary orbit from a floating platform at an equatorial site in the Pacific Ocean. Commercial launches began in 1999. In 2000, Boeing acquired the satellite business of Hughes Electronics.

Boeing significantly expanded its defense and space operations in 1996 by acquiring Rockwell International’s aerospace and defense businesses in a transaction valued at about $3 billion. The acquisition added about 20,000 employees and operations involved in spacecraft, missiles, military aircraft, satellites, and other defense systems. Boeing incorporated the Rockwell businesses into its Defense and Space Group.

Later that year, Boeing agreed to merge with McDonnell Douglas in an all-stock transaction valued at $16.3 billion by the time it was completed in August 1997. Boeing remained the surviving company, and Boeing Chair and Chief Executive Officer Phil Condit retained those positions. McDonnell Douglas CEO Harry Stonecipher became Boeing’s president and chief operating officer, and former McDonnell Douglas executives assumed several other senior positions in the combined company.

Boeing integrated the former Douglas commercial aircraft business into its commercial airplane operations and combined the companies’ military and space activities. The integration gave Boeing major operations beyond its traditional Seattle base, including military aircraft operations in St. Louis and space and communications operations in Southern California.

In 2001, Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago from Seattle, where it had been for 85 years. Company leaders said the expanded Boeing needed a neutral headquarters separate from any of its major business units and better positioned relative to customers, financial markets, and the federal government.

In 2003, Boeing began taking orders for the 787 Dreamliner, a mid-range jet designed to match the speeds of long-range wide-body aircraft while offering substantially better fuel efficiency through new high-bypass turbofan engines built by General Electric and Rolls-Royce and an innovative, lightweight body design.

Roughly half of the primary structure of the 787, including the fuselage section and the wings, was made of carbon fiber and plastic composite materials, lighter than the aluminum alloys used in most aircraft. Many airlines, faced with rising fuel costs, saw the 787 as key to upgrading their fleets in the following decade and ordered hundreds of the new planes.

Originally scheduled to be delivered for commercial service starting in 2008, the 787 was beset with several production problems, not the least of which was failure of the crucial fuselage section in stress tests. Consequently, Boeing did not make initial delivery until 2011.

In January 2013, following an airworthiness directive issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that was subsequently taken up by regulators worldwide, all 787s in operation globally were temporarily grounded until a potential risk for battery fire was corrected.

The FAA approved modifications to the 787’s battery system in April 2013, allowing the aircraft to return to service the following month. Boeing subsequently expanded the Dreamliner family with the larger 787-9 and 787-10 and consolidated final assembly in North Charleston, South Carolina, in 2021. The program later encountered additional production and quality-control problems that interrupted deliveries and led the FAA in 2022 to retain responsibility for issuing airworthiness certificates for new 787s.

The 787 remained a major Boeing commercial program, with more than 2,400 orders from 90 customers by 2026.

Boeing launched the 737 MAX in 2011 in response to Airbus’s A320neo, choosing to update the existing 737 rather than develop an entirely new aircraft. The MAX used larger engines that, because of their size and placement, gave the aircraft a tendency to pitch upward under certain conditions. To counter this tendency, Boeing developed the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS), software designed to automatically push the nose down.

Flight testing showed that MCAS was also needed at low speeds, prompting Boeing to expand the system’s capabilities, including how much it could move the aircraft’s stabilizer. In its revised form, MCAS relied on data from a single angle-of-attack sensor, leaving the system vulnerable to an erroneous reading from that sensor. Boeing assumed pilots would be able to recognize and counter an unintended activation within seconds, yet pilots weren’t told about the system in their flight manuals.

Those decisions came under intense scrutiny after two 737 MAX 8 crashes less than five months apart. Lion Air Flight 610 crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 29, 2018, killing all 189 people aboard; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed after leaving Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, killing 157.

In both accidents, erroneous sensor data activated MCAS, repeatedly forcing the nose down. Although investigators identified other contributing factors, the crashes exposed serious flaws in the design and certification of MCAS and in the assumptions Boeing had made about how pilots would respond to a malfunction.

Aviation authorities began grounding the MAX after the Ethiopian Airlines crash. The FAA initially allowed the aircraft to continue flying, but reversed course on March 13, 2019, after new data showed similarities between the two accidents.

The resulting investigations extended beyond MCAS to Boeing’s development practices and the FAA’s oversight of the certification process. A U.S. House investigation found that Boeing had made faulty technical assumptions, withheld critical information about MCAS from pilots, and allowed production pressures to influence the MAX’s development.

As the crisis deepened, Boeing’s board removed CEO Dennis Muilenburg in December 2019, saying a leadership change was necessary to restore confidence in the company.

The MAX remained grounded in the U.S. for 20 months while Boeing redesigned MCAS and made other changes to the aircraft. In November 2020, the FAA cleared it to return to service, subject to required modifications and new pilot training, and U.S. passenger flights resumed the following month. Other airlines and aviation authorities followed in 2021.

Boeing’s safety and quality problems again drew national attention in January 2024, when a door plug separated from an Alaska Airlines 737-9 shortly after takeoff. The accident shifted scrutiny from the MAX’s original design and certification to Boeing’s manufacturing and quality-control practices.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ultimately called for changes to the company’s manufacturing processes, recordkeeping, worker training, and safety and quality management systems, as well as an independent review of Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ safety culture.

Boeing named aerospace-industry veteran Kelly Ortberg as CEO in July 2024, as the company struggled with production and quality problems, regulatory scrutiny, mounting losses, and strained relations with employees and customers.

A mechanical engineer and former CEO of Boeing supplier Rockwell Collins, Ortberg took office in August and moved to the Seattle area to be close to Boeing’s commercial aircraft operations. He emphasized spending time on factory floors and later pressed senior executives to work closer to the businesses they managed.

Ortberg’s efforts to stabilize Boeing were complicated by labor disputes. In the fall of 2024, about 33,000 machinists in the Pacific Northwest went on strike, halting production of key Boeing aircraft for nearly two months. The following year, about 3,200 defense workers in the St. Louis area staged a nearly 15-week strike that curtailed military-aircraft production.

Ortberg later acknowledged that management had been too distant from its Pacific Northwest employees and had misunderstood their priorities. He also sought to reduce management ranks, change employee incentives, and improve accountability as Boeing worked to address longstanding concerns about production, safety, and quality.

Boeing also sought to improve manufacturing quality by bringing a major supplier back under its control. In December 2025, the company completed its $4.7 billion purchase of Spirit AeroSystems, which had been created when Boeing spun off manufacturing operations in 2005.

Spirit produced the fuselages of the 737 and major components for other Boeing aircraft, but had struggled with its own quality problems. The acquisition brought more of Boeing’s manufacturing supply chain back under direct control.

As of mid-2026, Ortberg was still emphasizing production discipline and closer communication with workers, while acknowledging that Boeing’s financial recovery would take several more years.