PEDIGREE OF CHAMPIONS Boeing Since 1916 (FOURTH EDITION 1977)

This book is in a small way a chronicle of man's unceasing efforts to master and use the earth's atmosphere-and in later years, space-for purposes of commerce and defense. It is a capsule history of Boeing design evolution from the stick-and-wire B&W of 1916 to today's globe-girdling military and commercial jets, missiles, and space vehicles. Although no attempt can be made here to list every airplane or product built by Boeing and its subsidiary companies, all major types-either experimental or production are shown, together with many of the variations which in one way or another helped make aviation history.

Because several "families" of airplanes, missiles, or other vehicles often were in production simultaneously, resulting in an intermingling of models, it is not possible to present them in exact chronological order or in sequence of Boeing model numbers.

Some Boeing airplanes are best known by their factory designations, while others universally are referred to by a military name or number. The most generally accepted nomenclature is used here. Factory and other designations are correlated in a complete table on page 79.

EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION 

In 1976, The Boeing Company became the first U.S. firm to complete 60 years of continuous operation as a manufacturer of airplanes. Although aircraft work had been in progress since 1915, corporate identity was not achieved until Pacific Aero Products was incorporated on July 15, 1916. The name was changed to The Boeing Airplane Company in April 1917, without change of corporate structure or management.

The small specialty shop, with a 21-man work force, became a major aircraft manufacturer during World War I. The company struggled through the first disastrous postwar years by accepting military orders for the manufacture or modernization of airplanes designed and built by others and the manufacture of Sea Sled boats and furniture. When markets for new airplane designs developed, Boeing was ready with new models and processes. It was the first American manufacturer to use welded steel tubing for fuselage structure, a feature that soon became standard throughout the industry until generally replaced by monocoque sheet metal structures in the mid-1930s. 

[...]