Boeing & Airbus

The Boeing Company

The Boeing Company is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by Willaim E. Boeing. Its international headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois, USA. By revenue, Boeing is the largest global aircraf manufacturer, by orders and deliveries, and the second-largest aerospace and defense contractor in the world.

Boeing has long been one of the world's largest civil aircraft companies. In 2006, it took 55% of global commercial aircraft orders for the first time since 2000. The largest exporter in the United States, Boeing's stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

History of Boeing Company

Boeing was incorporated in Seattle, Washington by William E. Boeing, on July 15, 1916, as "Pacific Aero Products Co." On May 9, 1917, the company became the "Boeing Airplane Company". William E. Boeing had studied at Yale University and worked initially in the timber industry, where he became wealthy and acquired knowledge about wooden structures. This knowledge would prove invaluable in his subsequent design and assembly of airplanes.

In 1933 the revolutionary Boeing 247 was introduced. Boeing built the first sixty aircraft exclusively for its own airline operations. This badly hurt competing airlines, and was typical of the anti-competitive corporate behavior that the US government sought to prohibit at the time.

The Air Mail Act of 1934 prohibited airlines and manufacturers from being under the same corporate umbrella, so the company split into three smaller companies - Boeing Airplane Company, United Airlines, and United Aircraft Corporation, the precursor to United Technologies. As a result, William Boeing sold off his shares.

Shortly after, an agreement with Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) was reached, to develop and build a commercial flying boat able to carry passengers on transoceanic routes.

In the mid-1950s technology had advanced significantly, which gave Boeing the opportunity to develop and manufacture new products. One of the first was the guided short-range missile used to intercept enemy aircraft.

About forty years later, in April 1994, Boeing introduced the most modern commercial jet aircraft at the time, the twin-engine 777, with a seating capacity of between 300 and 400 passengers in a standard three class layout, in between the 767 and the 747.

In September 2001, Boeing moved its corporate headquarters from Seattle to Chicago.

In recent years Boeing has faced an increasingly high competition from Airbus, which offers some commonality between models (reducing maintenance and training costs) and the latest fly-by-wire technology. From the 1970s Airbus has increased its family of aircraft to the point where they can now offer an aircraft in almost every class Boeing does. Indeed, Airbus is now competing in markets that Boeing once had a monopoly over.

After several decades of numerous successes, Boeing lost ground to Airbus and subsequently lost its position as market leader in 2003. Multiple Boeing projects were pursued and then canceled.

On August 2, 2005 Boeing sold its Rocketdyne rocket engine division to Pratt & Whitney. On May 1, 2006, Boeing announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to purchase Dallas, Texas-based Aviall, Inc. for $1.7 billion and retain $350 million in debt. Aviall, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Aviall Services, Inc. and ILS formed a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services (BCAS).

The Airbus Company

Airbus is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace concern. Based in Toulouse, France and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners. Airbus began as a consortium of aerospace manufacturers. Consolidation of European defence and aerospace companies around the turn of the century allowed the establishment of a simplified joint stock company in 2001, owned by EADS (80%)