Bertha Boeing christens the Model 40A
Diversifying to make ends meet
Meanwhile his company struggled to make ends meet. It made furniture, phonograph cases, and fixtures for a corset company. To promote the idea of commercial aviation, Boeing and pilot Eddie Hubbard used Boeing's personal C-700 (a civilian version of the Model C) to deliver 60 letters from Vancouver to Seattle as part of the Canadian Exposition. This was the first international airmail to reach the United States.
The company then started to show a profit from repairing military aircraft and building biplane fighters designed by other companies. By 1921, the company had reestablished itself and Boeing had found himself a bride. That year, Boeing brought his new wife, Bertha Potter Paschall, and her two young sons from a previous marriage, to his estate in Highland Hills. Later, another son, William Boeing, Jr., was born to the couple.
Boeing continued to run his timber business and was able to absorb details of both lumber and airplane enterprises. Years later, he could recall the description and topography of a parcel of land and the species and quality of timber that it would yield. He believed in details and told his managers that many a wrong decision stemmed from a detail overlooked or incorrectly interpreted.
Air-cooled engine wins the bid
Nonetheless, he demonstrated an unerring ability to look at the big picture. He knew the trees, but could grasp the importance of the forest. His decision to use air-cooled engines rather than the traditional water-cooled engines on the Model 40A mailplane, which was competing for the Chicago to San Francisco airmail route, allowed him to win the bid. The contract required that Boeing have 26 airplanes in operation by July 1, 1927.
Boeing had to underwrite a $500,000 bond with his own money to secure the company's performance on the airmail contract. Bertha Boeing was asked to launch the first Model 40A mailplane but was told that, because of Prohibition, no champagne was allowed on Crissy Field in San Francisco. She objected and a legend was born. In one version, she christened the plane with orange juice and soda but never knew the difference. In another, she was given special permission to use real champagne. In either case, this started the company in the business of air transportation and the mass production of commercial air transports.
In 1928, Boeing told an interviewer: "It is a matter of great pride and satisfaction to me to realize that within the short space of 12 years, an infant company with a personnel of less than a dozen men, has grown to be the largest plant in America, devoted solely to the manufacture of aircraft, and at the present time employing approximately 1,000 men."
On February 1, 1929, Boeing Airplane and Transport Corporation became United Aircraft and Transport Corp. and included several airlines, aircraft manufacturers, engine and propeller manufacturers, and a school for pilots and maintenance personnel in California.