Boeing

The Boeing Company started in 1916, when American lumber industrialist William E. Boeing founded Pacific Aero Products Company in Seattle, Washington. Shortly before doing so, he and Conrad Westervelt created the "B&W" seaplane. In 1917, the organization was renamed Boeing Airplane Company, with William Boeing forming Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation in 1928. In 1929, the company was renamed United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, followed by the acquisition of several aircraft makers such as Avion, Chance Vought, Sikorsky Aviation, Stearman Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, and Hamilton Metalplane.

In 1931, the group merged its four smaller airlines into United Airlines. In 1934, aircraft manufacturing was required to be separate from air transportation. Therefore, Boeing Airplane Company became one of three major groups to arise from the dissolution of United Aircraft and Transport; the other two entities were United Aircraft (later United Technologies) and United Airlines.

In 1960, the company bought Vertol Aircraft Corporation, which at the time, was the biggest independent manufacturer of helicopters. During the 1960s and 1970s, the company diversified into industries such as outer space travel, marine craft, agriculture, energy production and transit systems.

In 1995, Boeing partnered with Russian, Ukrainian, and Anglo-Norwegian organizations to create Sea Launch, a company providing commercial launch services sending satellites to geostationary orbit from floating platforms. In 2000, Boeing acquired the satellite segment of Hughes Electronics.

In December 1996, Boeing announced its intention to merge with McDonnell Douglas, which, following regulatory approval, was completed on August 1, 1997. The delay was caused by objections from the European Commission, which ultimately placed three conditions on the merger: exclusivity agreements with three US airlines would be terminated, separate accounts would be maintained for the McDonnell-Douglas civil aircraft business, and some defense patents were to be made available to competitors. …

In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX narrow-body passenger airplanes crashed, leaving 346 people dead and no survivors. In response, aviation regulators and airlines around the world grounded all 737 MAX airliners. A total of 387 aircraft were grounded. Boeing's reputation, business, and financial rating suffered after the groundings, as Boeing's strategy, governance, and focus on profits and cost efficiency were questioned. In 2022, Netflix released an exposé, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, claiming Boeing's corporate merger with McDonnell Douglas led to the crashes through a disintegration of workplace morale.

In June 2020, the Federal Aviation Administration found several 737 MAX defects that Boeing deferred to fix, in violation of regulations. In September 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives concluded its own investigation and cited numerous instances where Boeing dismissed employee concerns with a 737 MAX flight stabilizing feature (MCAS) that caused the two fatal accidents, prioritized deadline and budget constraints over safety, and lacked transparency in disclosing essential information to the FAA. It further found that the assumption that simulator training would not be necessary had "diminished safety, minimized the value of pilot training, and inhibited technical design improvements". On January 7, 2021, Boeing settled to pay over $2.5 billion after being charged with fraud over the company's hiding of information from the safety regulators: a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million, $1.77 billion of damages to airline customers, and a $500 million crash-victim beneficiaries fund.

In September 2022, Boeing was ordered to pay a further $200 million over charges of misleading investors about safety issues related to these crashes. In March 2023, Boeing disputed in court filings that the victims of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (2019 crash) experienced any pain and suffering in the final six minutes as the plane was nosediving into the ground, arguing that death at an impact at the "speed of sound" would have been too quick to be painful. …

In 2006, the UCLA Center for Environmental Risk Reduction released a study showing that Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a site that was a former Rocketdyne test and development site in the Simi Hills of eastern Ventura County in Southern California, had been contaminated by Rocketdyne with toxic and radioactive waste. Boeing agreed to a cleanup agreement with the EPA in 2017. Clean-up studies and lawsuits are in progress.

Boeing reported that each one of the jets it delivered in 2020 will add an average of one million tons of carbon dioxide to the Earth's atmosphere. It was also estimated that the planes sold in 2020 will produce about 158 million tonnes of CO2.

Climate change is impacting Boeing in the form of increased risks associated with extreme weather events, supply chain disruptions, and tough climate regulations. Boeing is forced to deal with increased operational and financial pressures associated with reducing carbon emissions and finding sustainable solutions. As such, Boeing is committed to making sustainable aviation fuel solutions suitable for its entire fleet of planes by 2030 and aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

On July 19, 2022, Boeing announced a renewed partnership with Mitsubishi to produce carbon-neutral and sustainable solutions.

The airline industry is responsible for about 11% of greenhouse gases emitted by the U.S. transportation sector. Aviation's share of the greenhouse gas emissions was poised to grow, as air travel increases and ground vehicles use more alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Boeing estimates that biofuels could reduce flight-related greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 to 80%. The solution blends algae fuels with existing jet fuel.

Boeing executives said the company was collaborating with Brazilian biofuels maker Tecbio, Aquaflow Bionomic of New Zealand, and other fuel developers around the world. As of 2007, Boeing had tested six fuels from these companies, and expected to test 20 fuels "by the time we're done evaluating them". Boeing also joined other aviation-related members in the Algal Biomass Organization (ABO) in June 2008.

Air New Zealand and Boeing are researching the jatropha plant to see if it is a sustainable alternative to conventional fuel. …

In 2007 and 2008, the company benefited from over 10 billion dollars in USD of long-term loan guarantees, helping finance the purchase of their commercial aircraft in countries including Brazil, Canada, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates, from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, some 65% of the total loan guarantees the bank made in that period.

In 2008 and 2009, Boeing was second on the list of Top 100 US Federal Contractors, with contracts totaling US$22 billion and US$23 billion respectively. Between 1995 and early 2021, the company agreed to pay US$4.3 billion to settle 84 instances of misconduct, including US$615 million in 2006 in relation to illegal hiring of government officials and improper use of proprietary information.

Boeing's spent US$16.9 million on lobbying expenditures in 2009. In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama "was by far the biggest recipient of campaign contributions from Boeing employees and executives, hauling in US$197,000 – five times as much as John McCain, and more than the top eight Republicans combined".

Boeing has a corporate citizenship program centered on charitable contributions in five areas: education, health, human services, environment, the arts, culture, and civic engagement. In February 2012, Boeing Global Corporate Citizenship partnered with the Insight Labs to develop a new model for foundations to more effectively lead the sectors they serve.

The company is a member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a Washington D.C.–based coalition of more than 400 major companies and NGOs that advocate a larger International Affairs Budget, which funds American diplomatic and development efforts abroad. A series of U.S. diplomatic cables show how U.S. diplomats and senior politicians intervene on behalf of Boeing to help boost the company's sales. In Donald Trump's administrations, Paolo Zampolli has styled himself as "Boeing’s number-two salesperson in the world, right after the president", which the company did not confirm, and claimed that, when foreign governments want access to Trump, he tells them "If you want to make the president happy, buy Boeing.”

Boeing secured the highest-ever tax breaks at the state level in 2013.

In March 2025, Boeing was awarded a contract to build the U.S. …

The key trends of Boeing are (as at the financial year ending December 31):

Between 2010 and 2018, Boeing increased its operating cash flow from $3 to $15.3 billion, sustaining its share price, by negotiating advance payments from customers and delaying payments to its suppliers. This strategy is sustainable only as long as orders are good and delivery rates are increasing.

From 2013 to 2019, Boeing spent over $60 billion on dividends and stock buybacks, twice as much as the development costs of the 787.

In 2020, Boeing's second quarter revenue was $11.8 billion as a result of the pandemic slump. Due to higher sales in other divisions and an influx in deliveries of commercial jetliners in 2021, second quarter revenue increased by 44%, reaching nearly $17 billion.

Revenues decreased 15 percent to $16.9 billion in the second quarter of 2024, compared to the same time period in 2023. The company's operating loss amounted to $1.39 billion and its net loss to $1.43 billion, while plane deliveries fell to 92 (from 136 in 2023).

In 2024, Boeing delivered just 348 aircraft to its customers, its lowest output since the COVID-19 pandemic. Boeing ended the year with a backlog of 5,595 unfilled orders.