The Boeing B and W Seaplane and the first airplane Bill Boeing ever built, June fifteenth, nineteen sixteen

On June 15, 1916, lumber baron William “Bill” Boeing climbed into a wood-and-linen floatplane called Bluebill and flew it off Seattle’s Lake Union—becoming the test pilot for the very first airplane to carry the Boeing name. The aircraft, designated the B&W, was designed in partnership with Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt, and its successful flight launched what would become the Boeing Airplane Company. Boeing flew it himself, untrained, simply because the hired test pilot was running late.

Who Was Bill Boeing Before He Built Airplanes?

In 1916, William Edward Boeing was not an aviation pioneer—he was a wealthy timber man. He had come west and made a fortune in Pacific Northwest lumber, the kind of money that bought a yacht, a mansion, and a seat at Seattle’s most important dinner tables.

What he had in abundance was spruce, money, and time. What he didn’t yet have was an airplane that flew the way he wanted it to.

His interest in flight began years earlier at an air meet in Los Angeles, during the era when a flying machine over your town was front-page news. Boeing watched French aviator Louis Paulhan perform and asked for a ride. The ride never came—the line was long and Paulhan was busy—but the fascination stuck.

How the B&W Seaplane Came Together

Boeing finally got airborne in 1915, flying in a Curtiss seaplane. Somewhere in that flight, the man who ran a lumber empire decided he could build something better.

He wasn’t alone. His friend and collaborator was George Conrad Westervelt, a Navy officer and MIT-trained engineer—a serious technical mind in an age when many airplanes were still designed by guesswork. Flying the Curtiss together, the two picked the aircraft apart: the controls were sloppy, the structure crude.

So they built their own. Boeing supplied the money and the spruce; Westervelt supplied the engineering. They named the airplane the B&W, after Boeing and Westervelt.

What the B&W Looked Like

The B&W was a large biplane seaplane built to rise off the waters of Puget Sound. Its key specifications:

Wingspan: just over 52 feet
Floats: two long twin wooden pontoons
Structure: spruce spars with linen fabric stretched over the frames and doped tight
Power: a Hall-Scott engine of roughly 125 horsepower, turning a hand-carved wooden propeller

The wire bracing between the wings was tensioned by ear—riggers would pluck the wires like harp strings and listen to the pitch to judge whether the tension was correct.

The aircraft was built in a red boathouse on the shore of Lake Union in Seattle. At the time, Boeing’s company didn’t yet have its famous name—it was called the Pacific Aero Products Company. By mid-June 1916, the first aircraft was finished and named Bluebill, with a second, Mallard, close behind.

Why Did Bill Boeing Fly It Himself?

The professional plan was sensible: a local barnstormer named Herb Munter was hired to make the first flight. Owners and financiers do not test-fly brand-new, never-flown experimental aircraft.

But on June 15, 1916, Munter was running late. Bluebill sat on the water—fueled, rigged, and ready—and the test pilot wasn’t there.

So Bill Boeing climbed in and flew it himself. This was the maiden flight of a one-off prototype with no flight history, flown by a man who was not a trained aviator. Every unknown in early aviation—untested balance, possible reversed controls, an engine that might quit over a cold lake—was in that cockpit with him.

He pushed the throttle up anyway. The Hall-Scott roared across the north end of Seattle, the pontoons carved two white furrows through the lake, and Bluebill lifted off. The first Boeing airplane flew, with a lumberman at the controls. He circled the lake, felt the airplane out, and brought it back down. In that moment, Boeing was no longer just a timber baron—he was an airplane builder, and a capable one.

What Happened to the First Boeing Airplanes?

The B&W flew well—better than the Curtiss the two men had come to dislike. Westervelt’s engineering was sound and the airplane was stable. Boeing and Westervelt tried to sell the pair to the U.S. Navy, which passed.

Both aircraft, Bluebill and Mallard, were eventually sold and shipped to New Zealand, where they served a flying school and even carried some of that country’s first airmail across the water.

No original B&W survives today. However, the Museum of Flight in Seattle built a faithful full-size replica of Bluebill, which now hangs on display beneath its 52-foot wingspan.

From One Floatplane to a Century of Flight

Westervelt was reassigned by the Navy in 1916, leaving Seattle just as the company was being born. The partnership that built the first airplane ended almost before it began, and Boeing carried it forward alone.

In 1917, he dropped the Pacific Aero Products name and renamed the company the Boeing Airplane Company. That name would go on to span the Model 80 trimotor, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-29, the Boeing 247 (the first modern airliner), the 707, the 747 “Queen of the Skies,” and even hardware that helped carry astronauts to the Moon.

More than a century of aviation traces back to two friends who painted their own initials on the side of a floatplane—and to a day when the test pilot was late and an impatient lumberman decided to fly.

Key Takeaways

On June 15, 1916, Bill Boeing personally flew the B&W seaplane “Bluebill” off Lake Union—the first airplane to bear the Boeing name.
The B&W was a collaboration between Bill Boeing (financing and materials) and George Conrad Westervelt (engineering); the name stands for Boeing and Westervelt.
The aircraft had a 52-foot wingspan, twin wooden floats, and a 125-hp Hall-Scott engine.
Boeing’s company was originally called Pacific Aero Products Company, renamed the Boeing Airplane Company in 1917.
No original B&W survives, but a full-size replica of Bluebill is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.