Overview

Flying High is the most definitive history of one of the world's most influential corporations, the Boeing Company. In an objective and riveting journalistic account, Eugene Rodgers tells how this giant of a company developed the jetliners that revolutionized travel, shrank the world, and made America the international ruler of the aircraft industry. Through interviews with present and past managers, engineers, and executives, and with access to internal company documents, Rodgers has reconstructed the compelling history of an American business that started small, dodged pitfalls, and managed to evolve into a leader despite intense competition and near collapses. Founded just prior to the outbreak of World War I, Boeing and its bombers played a pivotal role in World War II, but the company suffered in peacetime due to lack of contracts and only narrowly survived. After Boeing's creation in the 1950s of the first practical jetliner, the 707, the company led the burgeoning passenger-plane business. In 1965, Boeing began one of the most daring and ambitious research and development projects ever attempted by a private company: the 747. In a feat of extremely daring financing, Boeing staked its future on the model's success, came near to economic ruin because of it, and in the end pulled off an amazing triumph. Three towering figures dominate Boeing's epic rise: its founder, Bill Boeing; president and CEO Bill Allen; and Allen's successor, T Wilson. Based on company archives, documents including Allen's previously unseen diaries, and interviews with top executives, Flying High chronicles Boeing's achievements, controversies, and inner workings and sheds much-needed light on one of the only American industries that still dominate the world. EUGENE RODGERS is also the author of Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd's First Expedition to Antarctica.

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9781555845896

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