Boeing Stratocruiser and 707

In 1916, William Boeing officially incorporated his new aircraft business. He successfully sold aircraft to the US Armed Forces and formed an air transport operation, which used aircraft of his own making. In the lead up to WWII, Boeing produced some advanced designs, including a pressurized airliner and a large, long-range flying boat. As the war began, Boeing forged ahead with its famous B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and the pressurized B-29 Superfortress. While Boeing had focused on bombers during the war, Douglas and Lockheed had produced troop transports that were easily adapted as airliners for the postwar market. Boeing produced the Stratocruiser to fulfill that role, but it was not as big a success as the company wanted, and Boeing continued to try and design an alternative. It was heavily involved in the US Air Force jet bomber program and, using that experience, designed what became the world’s most famous airliner in the form of the Boeing 707.