Trivia Tuesday: Three Facts about Boeing and its Airplanes

Hey folks, it's Tuesday and here at SprinkleBit we have a bit of a custom on Tuesdays. That's right, you guessed it, it's time for some more trivia. This week, let's delve a bit into a company whose products I've always found very interesting and complex. Without anymore waiting, I present to you:

Fact #1: Not Just Airplanes

In 1917, when the United States entered the first world war, Boeing ($BA) manufactured about 50 airplanes for the Navy. However, after the war was over, many used military planes became available to the general public and flooded the commercial airline market, making it almost impossible for airplane manufacturers to survive. In light of this, Boeing began production on a wide variety of different products such as dressers, counters and furniture as well as flat bed boats called Sea Sleds.  This was only about 7 years after William Boeing bought his first eventual airplane factory in Seattle so Boeing has been used to diversifying its product line and even today, the company doesn't limit itself to airplanes such as its famous 747 or 737's but also builds satellites, rockets and provides support services on its products. Granted, all this is in the aerospace and defense sector, it is still a pretty diversified product line. However, is it possible to find a Boeing made dresser out there?

 Fact #2: The first 747

The first 747 airliner was launched in January 1970 and at the time it rocked the airline industry as it had a much larger seating capacity than other airplanes in the market. In fact, it held the seating capacity record for 37 years. It can fly up to 520 miles per hour  and has a range of 8,350 miles. Today, 1,400 747s have been delivered worldwide.     

 Fact #3: Boeing is a huge company

In case you didn't know, Boeing is a very large company. It has about 170,000 employees in the United States and is the second largest aerospace and defense contractor in the world with a revenue of about $81 billion dollars (In 2012). It is the largest exporter of American products in dollar value. Simply incredible.   There you have it, a few very interesting facts on Boeing and its products that furthers are undying interest in airplanes. If you liked this week's Trivia Tuesday, check out last week's and be sure to join the discussion here