In the last issue, we talked about how Boeing started, and how Wang Zhu, a Chinese student, helped Boeing improve their products and won orders for 50 military aircraft in World War I, and more than 500,000 US dollars in revenue, and later, Boeing coincidentally learned and borrowed from the Soviet Union to imitate german transport aircraft and designed the Boeing 247, and started its own passenger transport business.
It can be said that during this period, although the overall design strength of Boeing Company did not improve greatly after Wang Zhu left, it is fortunate that Boeing himself always puts technology development in the first place. And very caring for his engineers.
In fact, at that time, the United States already had its own airmail business, and the aircraft used were all British-designed aircraft during World War I.
Here I need to say a few words about this aircraft and his company. Like the founder of Boeing, Havilland is actually the name of the company's founder, his full name is de Havilland, who was the chief designer and test pilot of the British aircraft manufacturing company during the First World War. In 1920 de Havilland set up an aircraft company under his own name, after decades of development, this company became a well-known veteran aircraft manufacturing company in Britain, not only because of the manufacture of DH-4 aircraft, but also designed and manufactured a big name during World War II, I have to say that de Havilland, the designer test pilot from the aircraft company owner, the overall strength of the company is indeed much stronger than Boeing, here I have to say a few words about this mosquito aircraft, because this aircraft number is called "The Miracle of Wood" 。
A lot of aircraft during World War II. Boeing, including Boeing, has begun to make airplanes from metal materials on a large scale, such as metal skeletons with metal skins, but de Havilland has innovatively proposed ideas. This line of thinking can be said to be somewhat similar to the Japanese Zero fighter, except that the Japanese Zero fighter chose a higher cost of aluminum alloy as a material, and sacrificed a lot of protection in exchange for long range and high speed. The British de Havilland's Mosquito fighter is brain-opening with a solid wood glued frame to make the fuselage, a bit like our current wooden composite furniture practice. And also very cleverly used basha wood as a filling material, basa wood and we often use to make the piano paulownia wood similar, although this wood density is small and light weight, but it is combined to fill the fuselage gap, but can effectively improve the strength of the fuselage, because of its innovative use of this composite wooden structure to design the aircraft, but also make the difficulty of this aircraft manufacturing become very low.
At the same time, during World War II, there was also a very strange scene, that is, many musical instrument factories, wood factories and even furniture factories were helping to build airplanes. This saves a lot of steel resources for the state machine in wartime, and ah, this aircraft is not only light fuselage, fast, and super heavy capacity, although it has two engines, but in actual use, its load can still take off smoothly after exceeding the design weight of 4 times. So during World War II, he could not only do bombers, but also often as a transport aircraft to carry out missions, the famous quantum physicist Bohr, who fled from Denmark to Sweden in the British Mosquito bomber.
What's more interesting is that de Havilland's brain-opening design also crookedly made the Mosquito aircraft the world's first stealth aircraft, of course, this stealth can not be compared with the current invisible made of advanced reflective paint, and the invisibility of that year was also related to the inefficient radar of that year. We all know that the radar is detected by the reflection of metal, but this mosquito aircraft in addition to the engine, only more than 200 pounds of metal material, resulting in the German radar every time after irradiating it because it can not get effective reflection, the result is always ignored, the German Nazi Air Marshal, Goering yelled to follow, the Germans also copied this, but you know, the Germans have always been more stubborn in the pursuit of technology! All places always have to strive for excellence, so no matter how they build, they can't reach the technical parameters of the mosquito, and there is no way, the concept problem inherited from the bones.
After the war, Havilland also designed the world's first jet airliner, the Comet, and you know, Boeing was still studying the pitch of the propeller. Havilland has turned this advanced military technology to civilians. Later, Havilland designed the famous "Trident" airliner, if there are elderly listeners should be familiar with this name, because this aircraft was once introduced by our new China, and we are still one of the main users of this aircraft. And the plane that crashed into Öndörkhaan, also the trident of the Havilland Company. Of course, now this old British aircraft manufacturing company has now been integrated into Boeing.
After talking about Havilland and his aircraft, let's continue Boeing's airmail business, when the AIRCRAFT used by the US government to deliver mail were all British Havilland DH-4 aircraft produced in the United States during World War 1, and the number was very large, reaching nearly 5,000, of which 3 branches 2 were sent to the European battlefield, and the remaining aircraft were unloaded after World War 1 to serve the civilians. But this kind of aircraft has a fatal drawback, that is, his fuel tank is exactly in the middle of the two pilots, this design is very fatal, not only the distance between the two pilots is far away, so that the two people can not communicate, but also easy in the process of flight because of the violent flight action caused by the fuel tank to break through the structural restrictions to squeeze the pilot to death. In addition, in the process of air combat, the opposing pilot will also take special care of the fuel tank of this aircraft, specifically aiming at this place.
As a result, the plane was called the "Flying Coffin" during World War I, and several good pilots died because the aircraft's fuel tank burned. Although there is no danger of air combat, in case of problems and forced landings, this fuel tank is also easy to ignite. Boeing, in order to develop its own mail transport aircraft, the fastest way is to imitate, they through the havilland DH-4 imitation, successfully designed the creation of Boeing's new business sector of the 40A postal aircraft, it not only changed the pilot of the aircraft from two to one, but also changed the position of the fuel tank, and also designed a separate closed warehouse, greatly improving the transportation efficiency.
With the development of the business, Boeing set up a subsidiary to specialize in the aviation postal business, and also used its own postal company to buy its own aircraft manufacturing company 40 40A aircraft, and initially established its own aviation upstream and downstream industries. As the volume of business increased, Boeing also upgraded the aircraft, lengthened the fuselage and expanded the cargo warehouse. Then, as stated in the previous document, Boeing began its first attempt at manned aviation using the cargo depots that carried mail. And on the basis of the 40A developed the 80A, and then it is the use of these accumulated technologies, and then through the opportunity to give the Soviet transport aircraft maintenance, digestion and absorption of its technology, designed the world's first passenger aircraft, the Boeing 247.
Since then, Boeing's business SF Shunshui, Boeing in the 1930s can be said to have reached a peak stage, net assets reached 150 million US dollars, you know, this is 90 years ago, you know, this nearly 100 years of time the Us inflation rate increased by more than 2300 ah, that is to say, in 1930 1 US dollar purchasing power, can be equivalent to the current 23 US dollars. Boeing, a large-scale enterprise with upstream and downstream integration monopoly, not only had super competitiveness at that time, but also had super research and development capabilities, because in his joint company there were not only steel plants, but also industry-leading technology companies such as Northrop, Sikorsky, and Pratt & Whitney.
These three companies can still be often heard in the news, such as Northrop, which is now the predecessor of the joint company Northrop Grumman, the current Northrop Grumman company has been the world's 4th largest military enterprise, the world's most expensive bomber, the B2 stealth bomber is its production.
And Sikorsky is also very familiar with everyone, the Black Hawk helicopter that has been racing on the battlefield for 40 years is the largest helicopter it has produced, and the LARGEst helicopter CH-53E super stallion that the US military is now using is also Sikorsky's masterpiece.
There is also Pratt & Whitney, which is often mentioned in the military column, the full name of this company is Pratt Whitney Group of Companies, which specializes in the manufacture of aircraft engines, the F15/F16/F117/F22 that we are familiar with, and the engines that many Boeing Airbus aircraft now use.
It can be said that at that time, the group company led by Boeing has fully covered the aircraft industry from the manufacture of aviation materials, aircraft manufacturing, and then to aircraft services, such as mail, passenger transport, etc., it has been fully covered. At this time, Boeing himself took a back seat and assumed the role of chairman of the board of directors, leading the leaders of major companies on the board to make decisions, and no longer interfered too much in the actual technology development as at the beginning.
But at this time, the U.S. government was already thinking about Boeing, because the United States at that time, as well as the Anglo-American capitalist camp led by the United States and Britain, because of the disorderly free economy led to a high degree of privatization of the means of production, so that many industries could not complete socialized production and led to the economy entered the Great Depression era, there were homeless people everywhere, and the government was not only questioned, but also unable to bear the huge burden of social relief.
But as the operators of aviation monopolies such as Boeing, they have not been affected. After roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, took office, in order to solve this dangerous social form, he immediately began to plan a new anti-monopoly policy. Because the main cause of the Great Depression is monopoly, the biggest drawback of monopoly is to make competition disappear, without competition, the market loses its vitality, money can not flow throughout society, without funds, people can not realize their desire for capital, light leads to complaints, heavy is to take to the streets, protest to the US government.
Boeing was well aware of its company's position in Roosevelt's eyes, and vaguely felt that its aviation empire was about to be tested. Shortly after Roosevelt took office, the Black Act, also known as the Air Mail Act of 1934, was introduced to monopolize the aviation industry. The bill clearly stipulates that aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturers cannot have any connection with companies operating air transport. The result did not come as a surprise to Boeing, but it was immediately followed by a U.S. government complaint against Boeing.
At this point, Boeing's good days have come to an end, and Boeing's parent company, which relies on its own transportation enterprises to feed, has lost its financial resources at once. And according to the provisions of the new law, it was forced to split into three companies, namely United Aircraft Company, Boeing Aircraft Company, and United Aviation Engineering Company. One is mainly based on engine technology development, one is mainly based on aircraft manufacturing, and the other is mainly based on air transport. In the same year, Boeing officially left the aviation empire he had created, and completely sold all the Boeing shares he held. Since then, he has no longer had anything to do with Boeing, and he went to raise horses on a farm in Seattle.
The company has nothing to do with Boeing and his family, but rather the talent that the company has cultivated over the years. However, in honor of Boeing's founder, the company retained Boeing as the company's name. Boeing himself died suddenly in Seattle in 1956. It can be said that William Edward Boeing, this little carpenter, because of his love, only took more than 10 years to pull a small workshop that produced aircraft into an aviation giant that dominated the integration of the upstream and downstream of the aviation manufacturing and transportation industry.
However, this huge monopoly mode of operation will certainly prevent the historical development of mankind and be sanctioned, and roosevelt's new policy against these monopoly enterprises has allowed many large enterprises in the United States to split up and call them the main body of independent operation, forcing them to go to a broader market competition. At the same time, it has also enhanced the international status of the US dollar. It also laid the foundation for the establishment of the Bretton Woods monetary system with the US dollar as the center of international currency after World War II.
Boeing got out of the house, Roosevelt's New Deal was promoted, and Boeing set off again in the new era. At this time, the Second World War officially broke out, and Boeing, who was beaten back to its original form, once again used the war, not only to make a lot of money, but also because of the convenience of the victorious powers, by plundering Germany's scientific research technology, so that its product design took a lot of detours, then in the next period, we will start from the second year of Boeing's departure, talk about the famous B series bombers.