Boeing Company Overview. All you need to know

The Boeing Company is an American corporation that develops, produces, and markets aircraft, helicopters, spacecraft, satellites, telecommunications infrastructure, and missiles on a global scale. It provides its services on a multinational scale. Additionally, the business offers leasing and customer support services. According to 2020 revenue, It is the third-largest defense contracting company globally and the biggest exporter from the United States in terms of dollar volume. It is one of the biggest aerospace producing companies worldwide. On July 15, 1916, William Boeing established Boeing in Seattle, Washington. The current business was formed on August 1, 1997, when Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged. Harry Stonecipher, the former CEO of McDonnell Douglas, took on the roles of president and COO while Philip M. Condit, then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Boeing, retained his position in the amalgamated business. As of today, the headquarters of the company is situated in Chicago, Illinois. In the near future, the corporation intends to relocate its head office to Arlington, Virginia. Boeing is incorporated in Delaware.

The Boeing Company was birth in 1916 in Seattle, Washington with William E. Boeing as it’s founder. William was an American lumber industrialist. At the time, the company was called Aero Products Company. Before establishing the company, he co-founded the B&W seaplane. A year following the company’s creation, its name was changed to Boeing Airplane Company. William Boeing later modified the company’s name to Boeing Airplane and Transport Corporation in 1928. A new name, United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, was given to the business in 1929. This was accompanied by the purchase of several aircraft manufacturers, including Stearman Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, Chance Vought, Sikorsky Aviation, Avion, and Hamilton Metalplane. The company combined its four smaller airlines into United Airlines in 1931.

The separation of aircraft manufacture and air travel was mandated in 1934. United Aircraft (later United Technologies) and United Airlines were the other two businesses that emerged from the breakdown of United Aircraft and Transport due to the mandatory separation.

The business acquired Vertol Aircraft Corporation in 1960, which at the time was the largest private helicopter producer. In addition to that, the business expanded into fields like space flight, maritime vessels, agriculture, energy generation, and transit systems between the 1960s and the 1970s.

In 1995, It joined together with firms from Russia, Ukraine, and Anglo-Norway to develop Sea Launch, a business that offers commercial launch services for launching satellites into geostationary orbit from floating platforms. Additionally, It purchased Hughes Electronics’ satellite division in 2000.

After receiving regulatory approval, It revealed plans to combine with McDonnell Douglas in December 1996. The merger took place on August 4, 1997.

The dissolution of exclusive agreements with three US airlines, the maintenance of separate accounts for the McDonnell-Douglas civil aviation company, and the opening of several defense patents to rivals were the three requirements that the European Commission finally imposed on the merger. Four years after the amalgamation of Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas, the corporate head office of the merger was relocated to Chicago from Seattle. In 2018, the company partnered with The University of Sheffield. This partnership was a research-based partnership. It also instigated the launching of its first European factory in Sheffield, UK.

It suffered a lot of loss and dreadful events between the aforementioned years, making a lot of people conclude that these years were cursed years for the company. Stated below are some of the dreadful moments.

Due to the decline in air traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic, the corporation lost over 12,000 employment in May 2020, with intentions to eliminate 10% or over 16,000 seats of its staff overall. As a result of the pandemic and the grounding of its 737 MAX aircraft, Boeing recorded a loss of $2.4 billion in July 2020, and stated that it was preparing to respond by slashing additional employee positions and output. The CEO of the airplane manufacturing company, Dave Calhoun, announced additional job layoffs on August 18, 2020. On October 28, 2020, nearly 30,000 workers were let go as a result, as the COVID-19 pandemic was costing the company more and more money.

The Boeing 737 MAX narrow-body passenger aircraft was involved in two tragic accidents in 2018 and 2019. Following those accidents, airlines and aviation authorities worldwide grounded all 737 MAX aircraft. 387 airplanes in all were grounded. Following these groundings, It’s reputation, and credit rating all suffered, raising concerns about the company’s strategy, accountability, and emphasis on profits and cost effectiveness.

The highest capacity twinjet, the Boeing 777X, flew for the first time on January 25, 2020. However, due to a problem during flight testing, the predicted first delivery of the airplane was postponed until 2024.

The company is divided into four primary divisions. These divisions are;

• Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA)
• Boeing Global Services
• Boeing Defence, Space and Security (BDS)
• Boeing Capital

The 737, 747, 767, 777, and 787 are just a few of the commercial aircraft that Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) manufactures. Most of them also come in freighter and business jet versions. Nearly 35,000 individuals are employed by the division, many of whom work in the business’s production plants in South Carolina, Everett, and Renton, Washington (areas outside of Seattle). More than a dozen engineering, manufacturing, and assembly facilities are spread out across the country and abroad and BCA runs its operations. It oversees it all from its division headquarters in Renton, Washington. It also includes the assets of the Douglas Aircraft division of the former McDonnell Douglas Corporation, which amalgamated with the company in 1997.

Clients who acquire products from BCA, BDS, or other producers are given aftermarket assistance, such as maintenance and upgrades, by Boeing Global Services.

This aspect of the multinational company is involved in the manufacturing and marketing of defense, space and security related commodities. Examples of these commodities are satellites, military aircrafts, spacecrafts, space launch automobiles, and so on. It was formerly known as Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS).

The former “Military Aircraft and Missile Systems” and “Space and Communications” segments were combined to form Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in 2002. Boeing Defense, Space & Security makes it the second-largest defense contractor in the world and this division was in charge of generating 45% of the business’s revenue in 2011.

This is the aspect of the company that is assigned to provide customers financing for the commodities and services from the company’s other divisions. Aircraft Financial Services and Space & Defense Financial Services are the two subdivisions that make up Boeing Capital, these subdivisions offers asset-based leasing and financing services. It functions as a subsidiary that supports Boeing’s core operations. CD

Scattered across the globe are the numerous subsidiaries of this reputable multinational billion dollar company. Some of these subsidiaries include;

• Boeing UK
• Aurora Flight Services
• Aviall Services
• Boeing Defence UK
• Boeing Canada
• Boeing Aircraft Holding Company
• Boeing Australia
• Jeppesen
• Continental data graphics
• Spectrolab
• Boeing Intelligence & Analytics
• ForeFlight
• Boeing Japan
• Boeing India
• -Boeing Capital Corporation
• -Boeing Commercial Space Company

In conclusion, though the company has suffered a lot of losses in recent years, it still seats on 62.29 billion dollars in revenue (as of 2021). As at January 2022, the company had about 141,582 employees worldwide. Dave Calhoun is the current CEO and President of the company, while Larry Kellner is the company’s chairman.