Let’s remember when the company that became Boeing tested its first all-original airplane, on this day in 1916 (November 23)
Today’s entry answers a whole bunch of trivia questions.
From Walt Crowley and HistoryLink:
On November 23, 1916, Pacific Aero-Products tested its first all-original airplane, the Model C naval trainer. The plane was designed by a Chinese engineer, Tsu Wong (b. 1893), who was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for Boeing before he returned to China. It was first flown from Lake Union with Herb Munter (1897–1970) at the controls.
The success of the Model C led to Boeing’s first military contract in April 1917 and prompted both its reincorporation as the Boeing Airplane Company and relocation from Lake Union to a former shipyard on the Duwamish River.
As for Tsu Wong, he held important positions in China with the Hangzhou Aircraft Factory, the Chinese Air Force, and the China National Aviation Corporation with the Nationalist Government. When he fled the Mainland to Taiwan in 1949, he helped found China Airlines.
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