THE FIRST TIME WILLIAM BOEING FLEW IN AN AEROPLANE on 4 July, 1914, he was thrilled — and also disappointed. He and his friend George Conrad Westervelt, a US Navy lieutenant who had studied aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), rode on a push-prop biplane that required them to sit on the wings, and they were convinced that they could make something better. Boeing eventually took flying lessons from aviation pioneer Glenn Martin and bought his first ever aircraft, a Martin seaplane. Not long after the seaplane was shipped to Boeing's home in Seattle, one of its pontoons was destroyed in flight. Replacement parts would take months to ship. Not one to wait, Boeing decided to build his own aeroplane.
The result was the B&W seaplane, named after Boeing and Westervelt, who designed and built it with the help of engineer Herb Munter. Before the project was completed, though, the Navy transferred Westervelt to Washington. Nevertheless, the B&W Bluebill and Mallard seaplanes were completed in 1916, and on 15 July that year, Boeing formed the Pacific Aero Products company, hoping to sell the B&Ws to the Navy. They were rejected.
The company's fortunes might have remained bleak but for two unexpected incidences. One was the US' entry into World War I, boosting the demand for training aircraft and amphibian planes. The second was the hiring of Chinese engineer Wong Tsu.
Born in Beijing, China in 1893, Wong entered a government-run naval academy at the age of 12. A naval cadet at 16, he was sent by the government to England to study advanced ship building and engineering. With WWI raging, Wong was next sent to the US to learn aviation technology through the MIT's Masters programme in aeronautical engineering. It was through this that Westervelt learnt of Wong and recommended him to Boeing.
Wong, who had by this time learnt to fly, joined Boeing in Seattle around 1916 and designed the company's first commercially successful product, the Model C seaplane. A twin pontoon training seaplane, the Model C ran on a 100-hp Hall-Scott A-7A engine that produced a top speed of 72.7 mph, achieving a 200-mile range and a ceiling of 6,500 feet. It spanned 43 feet 10 inches and was 27 feet long, and it could accommodate two crewmen. Most of all, it captured the US Navy's interest.
To prove the C-trainer's merits, Boeing's firm — by then renamed the Boeing Airplane Company — had to demonstrate it at the Navy base in Pensacola, Florida. As the two test planes could not fly that far from Seattle, they had to be disassembled, packed in crates, shipped by train and re-assembled on the spot. Munter served as test pilot and operated the Model C amid strong winds and four-foot high waves. Convinced, the Navy bought 51 models — including the Model C-1F, which had two floats beneath each wing and only one pontoon — and the US Army bought two landplane versions.
A total of 56 C-trainers were built. The last, christened the C-700, was Boeing's personal aircraft. On 3 March 1919, he and friend Eddie Hubbard delivered the first international airmail flying the C-700 from Vancouver, Canada to Seattle. Thus, Wong's invention not only became one of the first American war training seabirds, but was also an international airmail pioneer.
As WWI ended, Wong completed two years at the Boeing Airplane Company and returned to his homeland to teach naval aviation and start a factory for amphibian aircraft. As chance would have it, in 1928 the Curtiss-Wright company partnered with the Chinese government to create the China National Aviation Corp (CNAC), with Westervelt at its helm. Wong was appointed CNAC's chief engineer and worked there for some six years until the government commissioned him to create the Central Hang Zhou Aircraft Manufacturer company, which built bombers for defence against the Japanese.
Wong was as much an innovator in China as he was in Seattle. He designed seaplanes and researched wooden pontoon frames and wing structures, fuselage bending and wing loading. He also co-designed the first ever floating dock for amphibian aircraft. In 1944, for lack of conventional aircraft materials, he created a composite material made of bamboo for an aeroplane skin with a wooden structure.
Wong was also passionate about spreading aviation knowledge. Thus, after setting up the Chinese Bureau of Aeronautical Research in Chengdu, China, he moved to Taiwan to spend his remaining years teaching aeronautics technology at the National Cheng Kung University, where his name continues to be highly respected today. Back in Seattle, a plaque at Boeing's Museum of Flight honours Wong's genius.
In a recent talk, Boeing's son, William Jr revealed amusingly: "Wong Tsu wrote that the one thing that pleased him most when he was interviewed and hired by my father [was that] my father guaranteed his safety in Seattle for one year." In return, Wong helped kick start the success of a company that is now nearly a century old and a household name in aviation worldwide. A most advantageous bargain, indeed.
