Sons of the pioneers of aviation

The Associated Press

SEATTLE — When the sons of two aviation pioneers met, what did they talk about first?

Sailboats.

But eventually, William Boeing Jr. and Donald Douglas Jr. began recollecting what it was like in the early days of the airplane industry.

The two met for the first time Friday night at The Museum of Flight, where they were attending the premiere of a documentary about the history of aviation.

"Those were some great times in those early days of flying," Boeing said .

His earliest memory of the Boeing Co. is taking balsa wood off the shop floor to build model battleships.

William Boeing Sr. formed the Boeing Airplane Co. in July 1916, securing contracts a year later from the U.S. Navy to build seaplanes for World War I.

Donald Douglas Sr. started manufacturing airplanes four years later in California with the production of the Cloudster, which first flew in February 1921. Douglas Aircraft became McDonnell Douglas, which became part of the Boeing Co. in 1997.

Boeing Jr. spent only about eight months working at the company his father founded. He described his father as having a "fabulous memory" and an ability "to make judgments based on fact."

Douglas said he was fascinated when planes started being made from metal instead of wood. He recalled his father as "a fine engineer with a great feel for technology" and someone who was well liked by airline executives.

"Pioneers in Aviation," a 90-minute documentary film that opened Saturday at the Museum of Flight, follows Boeing, Douglas and their companies from their first test flights to World War II and the jet age.

The film’s writer and director, William Winship, searched film canisters for footage from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The footage includes images of Boeing workers building biplanes in 1918, women working in Boeing and Douglas factories during World War II, a 19-year-old Marilyn Monroe modeling the cabin features of the Douglas DC-6 and Tex Johnson’s barrel-roll in the first Boeing 707 during the 1955 Seafair Celebration.

"The real revelation for me is that it is not just the story of these two guys or the companies they founded," Winship said. "You really find that aviation is absolutely woven around the great events of each decade. I found that I was not only writing about the two men or the two companies, but the history of America."

The documentary will air at 10 p.m. Nov. 13 on KCTS, channel 9.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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