Boeing was established in 1916 by William boeing, an American who had made a fortune from the timber industry. He teamed up with a Navy engineer to build his first seaplanes. Mr Boeing was ambitious about air transport and by 1927 had created his own airline, Boeing Air Transport. He acquired Pratt & Whitney and several other companies that could be of use in building airplanes. By 1933 Boeing had produced the world's first real airliner, the Boeing 247. Faster, more reliable and easier to fly than other passenger aircraft of the time it also had more reliable and powerful engines, enabling it to fly on one engine in an emergency. A law in the USA in 1934 prohibited airlines from being owned by aircraft manufacturers and Boeing split into three parts – the Boeing Airplane company, United Airlines and United Aircraft Corporation.

A little after that Boeing reached agreement with PanAm to build a commercial flying boat capable of transatlantic operations. This plane, the Boeing 314 Clipper, made its first flight in 1938 and could hold 90 passengers on day flights and 40 on overnight flights, when the seats turned into beds.

A year later PanAm began the first regular service between New York and London. During the Second World War Boeing concentrated on military aircraft, like most other airplane manufacturers, but Boeing used some of the war-time technology after hostilities ended, to create the Stratocruiser, a luxurious four-engined airliner capable of transatlantic flights.

By 1958 the Boeing 707 came into being, in competition with the Comet, Caravelle and Tupolev Tu-104. Capable of holding 156 passengers the 707 went on to become one of the world's most successful airliner of that era.

By 1960 the 727 (cockpit pictured, left) had been added and then in 1967 the short-haul airplane that was to become the world's most popular of all time, the Boeing 737. The first one flew, in Lufthansa's colours, in 1967 but for a time it looked as if the model would not be a success. Only 30 of the first model (737 100) were produced.

A refined model, the 737 200, fared little better and it looked as if the production line would be closed. Take a look at the two photos of the cockpit, above from a 727, left from the new (not yet flying 787) – how things have changed !

Meantime Boeing was rolling out, in 1968, the world's first "heavy" passenger aircraft, the 747, nicknamed the "Jumbo Jet". This aircraft, in its various models, has also gone on to be one of the most successful in the world, selling over 1,500 and is still in production, with a new variant, the 747-800, in construction stage. The first models cost $24 million each – a new 747-400 today would set you back $250 million. The latest model in service, the 747-400, has a range of over 8,000 miles and is capable of (and is constantly used on) flights from, say, London to Singapore or Hong Kong.

In the mid 1980s Boeing reacted to the growing threat from Airbus by introducing new models, primarily the 757 and 767. But then the cancellation of other projects, including the Boeing SST, allowed the company to free up funds to regenerate the model and from then on things began to take off. By 1980 the 737 800 was in production and since then boeing has never looked back. In total, 8,000 aircraft have been ordered and it is estimated that a Boeing 737 lands or takes off somewhere in the world every five seconds !

Then in 1994 came the 777, a modern wide-bodied twin-jet capable of holding up to 400 passengers. It was the first fly-by-wire plane Boeing had produced, using the "glass" cockpits similar to those in use on all Airbus planes. It was also the first plane to be designed by CAD technology (Computer Aided Design). This, in effect, models the plane in 3D on the computer screen without the necessity to build wooden scale models.

Boeing lost out in the late 1990s to Airbus but has recovered and the two now run neck and neck in sales volumes. The new 787 Dreamliner, although beset by construction problems, is due to come into service from late 2011, and the 747-8, a direct response to the Airbus A380, with a double deck configuration, should be in the skies around the same time. In 1997 Boeing absorbed McDonnell Douglas, makers of planes such as the DC9 and DC10, and more recently the MD80 series – the last was the MD95, also sold as the Boeing 717, but production of the MD series ceased in 2006.