Viewing page 5 of 22

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

ful bid for planes in competition for Aviation Section, Signal Corps, U.S. Army. During the fall of !916 Maroney flying school graduate Ed. Hubbard also started flying for Boeing. The first Model "C" was completed in November but on test Munter was not satisfied with the control. He advised modifications, including more rudder and fin surface. It was ready to fly again in January, 1917 and was ver satisfactory. Boeing had two additional model "C" planes under construction for Navy tests.

During the spring of 1917 Munter demonstrated the Model "C" before Naval officers at Seattle which resulted in permission to send in two new planes to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida. Munter went there for those tests which passed satisfactorily, obtaining an order for fifty planes. Boeing was now in the aircraft business.

In April, 1917 Boeing reorganized and changed the Company name to the Boeing Aircraft Company. That year two land training planes were built for the Army tests, known as the type "EA". These were normal dual control, tandem tractor biplanes powered by Curtiss  OXX-2 engines, but tests at Dayton, Ohio did not meet Government approval. The fifty Model "C" trainers for the navy were delivered to the Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego, California during early 1918.

During World War I Boeing factory facilities were increased greatly, employing over 400 people. Additional new models were developed to aid the war efforts and 25 HS-2-L flying boats were built for coast patrol service. That year Boeing also started a flying boat design known as the B-1. It was a 50-foot span pusher design, powered by a ^-cylinder Liberty, Hall-Scott engine. The B-1 was almost completed on Armistice Day, 1918.

After the war the aviation business declined and Boeing took the manufacturing license to build Sea Sleds but this venture was not too successful. He then went into building furniture to hold his firm together. On March 3d, 1919 Boeing and Ed Hubbard carried a sack of mail from Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada to Seattle during an exposition celebration there. They were flying a twin-float Model "C" Boeing hydro and this was probably the first international air mail between Canada the the United States.