For 100 years now, Boeing has been a Seattle story, a Washington story, a tale of innovation and technology and forward thinking. So, as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary — it officially incorporated on July 15, 1916 — it seems appropriate to acknowledge the immeasurable impact it has had upon the world.
Part of that impact has been a culture of creativity that permeates the psyche of the Puget Sound area and, therefore, the entire state. It is not a coincidence that over the decades the Seattle area became the incubator for high-tech endeavors such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Expedia; it is not a coincidence that the region also gave birth to innovative retailers such as Starbucks and REI. By way of comparison, Washington had 10 companies on the Fortune 500 list in 2015, while Oregon had three.
The entrepreneurial spirit that provided the foundation for those Washington companies can largely be traced to William E. Boeing, a lumberman who triggered the growth of Pacific Aero Products into the world’s preeminent aerospace firm. The company started with a single floatplane operating on Seattle’s Lake Union and went on to help the United States become an economic and military power. As The Seattle Times wrote editorially: “Boeing flying machines have gone on to connect continents, modernize travel and reach space. They’ve helped America defeat tyrants, win world wars and maintain its strength and security.”
Today, Boeing has about 80,000 employees in Washington, making it the state’s largest private employer. Yes, some have rightly questioned Boeing’s connection to the region in recent years: In 2001, the company moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago; and in 2013, the Legislature approved the extension of tax breaks worth an estimated $8.7 billion in exchange for promises to build the new 777X in the state — and Boeing responded by moving thousands of other jobs out of state.