WILLIAM BOEING (1881-1956)
College degrees aren't for everyone — just ask Bill Gates. Despite dropping out of Yale, Boeing lived to see his name stamped all over an industry that infatuated him from the start. He studied engineering before starting his own lumber company, then turned to building aircraft after buying one in 1914 and insisting that he could build a better model. With the help of his engineering friend, George Conrad Westervelt, Boeing produced the B&W seaplane that carried their initials. Inspired by its success, Boeing started the Pacific Aero Products, later renamed the Boeing Airplane Company, which built military planes during World War I. In the late 1920s, Boeing Air Transport moved mail and, by the 1930s, Boeing's companies were so successful that he was battling the Roosevelt Administration over antitrust laws. Since World War II, Boeing is perhaps most well known for its commercial planes, the most visible of which are the jumbo jets of the 1970s and beyond.
Flight's most special gift was bringing to the masses an ability to travel great distances and explore the globe faster and easier than ever before, and one of the pioneers in that field was Juan Trippe. As a new Pan American boss in 1927, Trippe's focus was a mail route from Key West to Havana, but his vision for the future was transporting people, not just letters — and not just the wealthy. His sea planes ran the first commercial routes across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the 1930s, setting the stage for a post-war intercontinental aviation world that Pan Am dominated. Trippe insisted that bigger was indeed better, and his legacy is putting into service the Boeing 707 and 747 jumbo jets. Richard Branson wrote of Trippe for the Builders and Titans section of the TIME 100: "He almost single-handedly built a world airline, Pan American, but often acted as if he owned the world. He also had a vision that would change it, at least as regards airline travel. While his Pan Am does not survive today, his vision does."
A giant in the automobile industry, Ford never met a dollar he didn't like, so it was only natural when, in the early 1920s, he set his sights on aircraft. In 1923, Ford used all-metal single-engine monoplanes built by the Stout Metal Airplane Company to run the Ford Air Transport Service, which, in 1925, became the first commercial route run specifically for the needs of one company. That same year, Ford dedicated the first modern airport in Dearborn, Mich., and launched his own Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company. By 1926, Ford was the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft. Sales of his Tri-Motor model — known as the "Tin Goose" — plummeted in the early 1930s, but Ford's aircraft manufacturing was a key component to World War II, when his plants churned out B-24 "Liberator" bombers.
Armed with an aeronautical degree from M.I.T. — which he earned in two years instead of the usual four — Douglas bounced around a few aircraft manufacturing companies before setting up his own shop in California in 1920. It was there he was hired by a rich sportsman named David Davis for $40,000 to build the first plane to fly non-stop across the United States. The mission failed, but Douglas's Cloudster drew raves, and he was soon put to work building torpedo bombers for the U.S. Navy. In 1936, he developed what has come be known as the first modern airliner, the spacious and speedy DC-3, whose C-47 military versions played a key role in World War II. Douglas's company was the leader in commercial flight until Boeing introduced the 707 superjet in the late 1950s. Douglas combatted with the DC-8 and, in 1965, with the twin-jet DC-9. Financial troubles eventually forced the company to merge with St. Louis-based McDonnell Aircraft Corp. in 1967.
Though he would later put his stamp on the luxury end of commercial flight, Lear began his career in aviation by getting his hands dirty in the cockpit. After learning to fly in 1931, Lear, who invented the car radio and many years later the 8-track tape player, dedicated his time to improving the way planes were piloted. By 1950, he'd secured more than 100 patents for aircraft radios, communications and navigation equipment. Among his greatest developments was the first autopilot for jet aircraft; fully automatic landings in low-visibility conditions were now reality. His signature plane was the Learjet, a super-sleek and speedy model that reigned supreme on the must-have lists of corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals.
BUY THE BOOK
"Flight: 100 Years of Aviation," a 440-page hardcover book from the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, is now 30% off at Amazon.com
FRAMED AVIATION POSTERS
Decorate your home or office with fully customizable artwork from Barewalls.com
