US-based planemaker Boeing has long been one of America’s largest and most important companies. The company’s business goes far beyond jet making, with divisions that design, develop, and manufacture aircraft, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles across the globe. The industrial conglomerate has an extensive presence in both civilian and military markets, and it also provides leasing and product support services.
Boeing’s most important and most recognizable division is Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which manufactures commercial jets that account for roughly half of all the planes that are in the skies carrying passengers today. The company today also stands as the world’s fourth-largest defense contractor based on its revenues from 2022, and it is also the largest exporter in the United States by the overall dollar value of exports.
Boeing was founded by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington, on July 15th, 1916, and it has been producing commercial and military aircraft ever since. The company that exists today comes from the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas on August 1st, 1997. As of 2023, Boeing’s corporate headquarters have been located in Arlington, Virginia, moving it closer to the principal source of defense contracts at the Pentagon. As a company that records around $63 billion in annual sales and is ranked 54th on the Fortune 500, it is unsurprising that it has truly made its impact on the commercial aviation industry.