Boeing’s Post-War Military and Space Activities

A tanker version of the C-97, called the KC-97, was introduced in 1950. It used the "flying boom" refueling system.

Immediately after World War II, the Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft (GAPA) was the first Boeing missile.

The BOMARC (“BO” from Boeing and “MARC” from Michigan Aeronautical Research Center), originally designated as the XF-99, was later redesignated IM-99 then CIM-10A, was a surface launched pilotless interceptor missile designed to destroy enemy aircraft.

The B-47E Stratojet was an improved version of an earlier model. This model made its first flight on January 30, 1953.

The -B model was the first aircraft in the B-52 series to actually serve with operational bomb wings in the Strategic Air Command.

The B-52H was the final model in the B-52 series. This photo shows a B-52 being refueled by a Boeing KC-135A tanker.

A Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker connects with a Rockwell B-1B strategic bomber as they fly through a weather system. The advent of the KC-135 jet tanker in the 1950s ushered in the golden age for air refueling.

Minuteman missile systems, operated by the Air Force Combat Command, are long-range, solid-fuel, three-stage intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying single or multiple nuclear warheads. The program began in 1958 and is one of Boeing’s longest military contracts.

The first CH-46A Sea Knight medium assault transport helicopter was delivered in 1964 and began service during the Vietnam War in 1965.

Rear view of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in the Gulf War, Saudi Arabia.

Liftoff of Lunar Orbiter I, 1966.

Article courtesy of Centennial of Flight

When World War II ended in August 1945, the U.S. government canceled its orders for bomber aircraft. Boeing plants that had been producing the B-17 and B-29 bombers in large numbers shut down and soon, 30,000 Boeing employees were out of work. In September 1945, William M. Allen took over as Boeing president from Claire Egtvedt. He remained until 1968.

The C-97, which first saw use during the war, helped bring Boeing out of the post-war slump that affected all aircraft manufacturers. The C-97 was used during the Korean War to evacuate casualties, and the KC-97 had a boom for aerial refueling. Almost 900 were built by 1958. It was Boeing’s last propeller-driven plane.

Boeing entered the field of rocket technology with its Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft, the first Boeing missile. The GAPA traveled at supersonic speeds and reached a record altitude of 59,000 feet (17,983 meters) in November 1949. It was the basis for the Bomarc missiles, the world’s first long-range anti-aircraft missiles. The Bomarc began mass production in 1957.

Boeing’s most important program immediately after the war was the B-47 Stratojet bomber, America’s first swept-wing multiengine bomber and the first plane that depended on the wind tunnel for its design. The concept of swept-wing design, which every large jet airplane since has followed, was developed when wind tunnel tests indicated that a straight wing plane did not use its jet power to its full potential. These results were confirmed when George Schairer, a Boeing aerodynamicist, saw wind tunnel data at a German aerodynamics laboratory at the end of the war. The first major production version, the B-47B, debuted in April 1951. The plane was fast enough to elude Soviet jet fighters of the early 1950s, and with aerial refueling, became an important strategic weapon. The 1000^th Stratojet rolled out from Boeing’s Wichita plant on October 14, 1954.

The B-47 was followed by the B-52 Stratofortress, America’s first long-range swept-wing heavy bomber and arguably America’s most significant multiengine aircraft ever built. This plane had an interesting birth. It was originally conceived as a straight-wing, propeller-driven bomber. But, in 1948, the Air Force told Boeing to design a jet bomber instead. At the time, its design team was visiting the Air Force’s Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, and realized that if they delayed, the Air Force might invite other companies to compete for the project. Not wanting to lose the project, the group, led by chief engineer Ed Wells and George Schairer, sequestered itself in a hotel room and, using only the notes with them and their slide rules, constructed a balsa model and a proposal over the weekend. The Air Force approved the design. Production began in 1951, and the first production B-52A flew in August 1954.

During the 1950s, the B-52 garnered numerous distance and speed records. It halved the round-the-world speed record and in January 1962, flew 12,500 miles (20,117 kilometers) nonstop from Japan to Spain without refueling, breaking 11 distance and speed records on the way. The B-52 served with the Strategic Air Command (SAC), in the Vietnam War, and in the Persian Gulf. It remained at the end of the 20th century a critical weapon system for the U.S. Air Force.

Boeing’s KC-135 was derived from its commercial Dash 80. It was the only jet airplane designed specifically for aerial refueling. It replaced the KC-97 tanker, which was too slow for the jet planes it needed to refuel. The first KC-135 rolled out in 1956 and it entered the U.S. Air Force fleet in 1957. It remains the Air Force’s prime refueling airplane.

As the Cold War continued, Boeing developed an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system. Development of the Minuteman ICBM began in 1958. Its first full-scale test firing came on February 1, 1961, and it became operational with the SAC in 1962. By 1967, 1,000 Minuteman missiles were operational and installed at six U.S. sites. At peak production 39,700 Boeing people worked on various Minuteman projects. Boeing engineers used this rocket-based technology to design the Dyna-Soar, a crewed reusable space vehicle. Although the project was canceled in 1963, with a loss of some 5,000 jobs, the concept reappeared 20 years later in the Space Shuttle.

Boeing bought Vertol Aircraft Corporation in 1960, the helicopter company founded as Piasecki Helicopter in 1943, builder of the "Dogship" and "Flying Banana." Piasecki became Vertol Corporation in 1956 after a takeover. The company introduced the H-46 Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook in 1958, two very successful helicopters. The Chinook made its first flight in 1961 and was first used in combat in Vietnam in 1965. The Sea Knight was first delivered in 1964 and began military service in Vietnam in 1965, serving primarily in a transport and rescue role.

In the 1960s, Boeing’s aerospace division became a large part of its business, employing some 55,000 people by 1962. Boeing had space facilities at two NASA centers and at Cape Canaveral in Florida, site of many space launches. The division built the first stage of the Saturn launch vehicles that sent the Apollo spacecraft toward the Moon. It also built the lunar orbiter, which photographed the Moon’s surface in 1966 to help NASA find a safe place for Apollo astronauts to land. It also built the Lunar Roving Vehicle that astronauts used on three Apollo missions. Boeing also became responsible for integrating all the technical aspects of the Apollo program, a huge task that began following the launch pad fire that killed three NASA astronauts on January 27, 1967. The project acronym was TIE, and it "tied" all the facets of the Apollo effort together.

In spite of its past successes, at the beginning of the 1970s, Boeing was in a precarious position. The Apollo program had ended, the Vietnam war was over, the country was in a recession, the 747 jumbo-jet had not yet begun to make money, and the SST program had been cancelled. The company diversified into non-aerospace areas with projects as varied as irrigating an Oregon desert, managing housing projects, building a desalinization plant, constructing three gigantic wind turbines, and producing light-rail vehicles.

Space and military programs also continued to provide a relatively small but dependable source of cash. In 1973, the Boeing-built Mariner 10 probe was launched, heading for Venus and Mercury. On the military front, Boeing produced the Advanced Airborne Command Post (E-4) in 1973, using the 747 airframe. The E-4 provided safe airborne headquarters for military and civilian leaders during emergencies. In August 1994, the upgraded E-4B assumed the additional role of supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency when a natural disaster occurs.

Boeing also continued to produce the short-range attack missile (SRAM), which was first deployed as a strategic weapon to be carried by FB-111A and B-52 bombers. By 1975, when the last of 1,500 SRAMs rolled out of assembly, they had become a key element in the SAC’s weapon inventory. Production of air-launched cruise missiles also began. From December 1982, more than 1,700 were built. These missiles were first used in combat during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In 1977, the first Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), using the Boeing 707 airframe, rolled out. In 1996, the Model 767 began carrying the system.

Frank Shrontz became company president in 1985. Under him, Boeing’s military and space divisions combined. Boeing developed the Inertial Upper Stage, a booster rocket designed to carry spacecraft into higher orbits after launch. NASA also chose Boeing as the prime contractor for the International Space Station in August 1993