The Boeing Company

In the early 1990s, a prolonged airline industry slump and increased competition from Airbus Industrie (see Airbus) forced Boeing to eliminate about 25 percent of its workforce. A lengthy workers’ strike in 1995 cost the company significant revenues. Also in 1995 the company launched into service the midsize 777 jet, the first jet designed and modeled entirely on computers. The new jet helped the company win billions of dollars worth of new orders.

As a primary contractor for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Boeing has supplied advanced electronics, rocket boosters, and components for the International Space Station project (see Space Station). In 1996 Boeing acquired the defense and aerospace divisions of Rockwell International Corporation for $3.2 billion, giving Boeing contracts for the construction of NASA space shuttle orbiters and their liquid-fuel main engines.

In 1997 Boeing acquired rival McDonnell Douglas Corporation for more than $16 billion, the largest merger ever in the aerospace industry. The merger dramatically strengthened Boeing’s military aircraft and defense businesses. However, following the merger Boeing experienced a series of setbacks. Facing a record number of orders for its commercial jets, Boeing was plagued by severe parts and labor shortages. Production delays forced the company to shut down assembly of its 737 and 747 jets for a month. The production problems, combined with the costs of phasing out production of McDonnell Douglas’s MD-80 and MD-90 passenger jets, led to billions of dollars in losses in 1997 and Boeing’s first annual loss since 1947.

In 1998 Boeing announced that it would stop producing the MD-11 wide-body jet, leaving the 717 (formerly called the MD-95) as the only remaining model from McDonnell Douglas’s line of jets. In 2000 Boeing acquired Hughes Electronics Corporation’s space and communications division, the world’s largest satellite manufacturing operation, in a deal valued at $3.75 billion.

In 2001 Boeing moved its company headquarters from Seattle to Chicago. In 2007 Boeing introduced the 787 passenger jet aircraft, also called the Dreamliner. The 787 was notable for being the first commercial aircraft with a primary structure made largely of composite material, mostly carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP). Traditionally the structural framework of an airplane is made of aluminum. The 787 was dubbed the “first plastic airplane,” although earlier military aircraft, such as the B-2 stealth bomber, had been made largely of composite material. The composite material used in the 787 is stronger, lighter, and more resistant to corrosion than aluminum. The lighter weight of the 787 enables it to carry more passengers without using more fuel than an airplane with a traditional, aluminum structure.

See also Airplane: History; Aerospace Industry; Military Aviation; Air Warfare.