Timeline: Highlights from Boeing’s 100 years

The Boeing Co. turned 100 today. Throughout the year, The Daily Herald is covering the people, airplanes and moments that define The Boeing Century. More about this series

1903: Bill Boeing leaves Yale University a year before graduating, and moves to Grays Harbor to get into the timber industry.

1903, December 17: Orville and Wilbur Wright launch the age of powered flight when their propeller-driven biplane takes off near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

1916, June 15: Bill Boeing takes his first plane, the B&W, for its first flight.

1916, July 15: Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products Co., which is renamed Boeing Airplane Co. the next year.

1917, August: The Navy orders Boeing’s Model C, a seaplane trainer. It’s the company’s first big order.

1925, July 7: First flight of the Model 40. Designed to carry mail, it is also Boeing’s first passenger plane.

1927: Model 15 fighters are barged to an aircraft carrier in Elliott Bay. In the 1920s, Boeing delivers more fighters to the U.S. military than any other supplier.

1929, February 1: Boeing and Pratt & Whitney create a huge aerospace conglomerate, called United Aircraft and Transportation Corp.

1930, May 6: First flight of the Monomail. It is Boeing’s first commercial monoplane and the first of several early innovative Boeing planes.

1933, February 8: First flight of the Model 247. It’s the first modern airliner; however, Douglas’ DC-2 and DC-3 dominate commercial air travel.

1934, September 18: Embittered over the airmail scandal, Bill Boeing cuts all ties to his company. United Aircraft and Transport Corp. breaks into three companies still around today: Boeing, United Technologies Corp. and United Air Lines.

1935, July 28: First flight of the Model 299 (B-17). Boeing President Claire Egtvedt bet the company on the B-17’s success.

1935, September 23: Thirty-five Boeing workers organize Local 751 of the International Association of Machinists. In 2016, the union represents more than 30,000 at Boeing.

1942, April: The Machinists union gives in to federal pressure to let blacks work at Boeing, but black workers do not receive union benefits.

1944, March 6: Sixty Boeing engineers hold SPEEA’s first meeting.

1944, March 10: The battle of Kansas begins. Hundreds of workers at Boeing’s Wichita plant labor around the clock for several weeks to get the first 175 B-29s into combat.

1945, August 6: The Enola Gay, a B-29, drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing more than 65,000. Japan surrenders nine days later.

1947, December 17: First flight of the B-47. The advanced jet bomber is a huge boost for Boeing, which lost money in 1946 and 1947.

1949, July 27: The Jet Age begins when the De Havilland Comet, the first commercial jetliner, makes its first flight.

1955, August 7: Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel rolls in the company’s new jetliner prototype, the 367-80, over Lake Washington during Seafair. The plane, better known as the Dash 80, first flew on July 15, 1954.

1957, December 20: The 707’s maiden flight. It outsells all competitors by wide margins.

1966, April 13: Boeing announces plans to build the 747, the first wide-body jetliner.

1969, February 9: First flight of the 747. Its development costs nearly bankrupt the company.

1971, April 16: A billboard goes up for 15 days reading “Will the last person leaving Seattle — turn out the lights?” The sign was meant as a joke, but it captured the region’s mood.

1974, May: Airbus’ first jetliner, the A300, enters service with Air France.

1978, October 24: The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 is signed into law. It allows direct competition between airlines and spurs the rise of low-cost carriers. It also helps create huge demand for single-aisle airplanes.

1980, May 18: Mount St. Helens erupts, killing 57.

1981, September 26: First flight of the 767. The 757 follows five months later.

1990, March 28: Boeing’s 737 becomes the world’s best-selling jetliner when United takes the 1,832nd 737.

1994, June 12: First flight of the 777. It’s Boeing’s biggest twinjet and the first entirely designed on computers.

1996, December 15: Boeing announces plans to buy McDonnell Douglas for $13.3 billion. The deal becomes official Aug. 1, 1997.

1997, February 9: First flight of the 737 Next Generation. The Next Gen variants are Boeing’s response to Airbus’ A320, which first flew in 1988.

1997, October 3: Boeing temporarily halts 737 and 747 production due to supply chain problems.

2000, March 17: SPEEA and Boeing reach a tentative deal, ending a 38-day strike.

2001, March 21: Boeing announces plans to move its headquarters out of Seattle, settling?on Chicago.

2003, December 19: Following a nationwide site search, Boeing says it will assemble the 787 in Washington, which offered an estimated $3.2 billion in tax breaks. The plane brings less work than earlier ones due to greater outsourcing to suppliers.

2005, June 30: James McNerney, head of 3M, is selected to run Boeing. The prior two CEOs — Harry Stonecipher and Phil Condit — both resigned amid separate ethics scandals.

2009, October 28: Boeing says its second 787 line will be in South Carolina. The move is motivated in large part by that state’s anti-union sentiment.

2009, December 15: First flight of the 787. It is more than two years late.

2011, September 25: Boeing delivers the first 787 to launch customer All Nippon Airways.

2014, January 3: Machinists narrowly approve a new contract, ensuring the 777X will be built in Everett. Boeing had threatened to take the work out of state without a labor deal. The state offered tax breaks worth an estimated $8.7 billion.

2016, January 29: First flight of the 737 MAX.

2016 May 20: Boeing opens a $1.2 billion addition in Everett to make the 777X’s advanced wings.