This film from the Boeing Company, “The Little Factory at the Edge of Town”, celebrates the aerospace giant’s 50th Anniversary in 1966. Begun in 1916, Boeing is an American multinational company and is made up of talented professional international workforce. Opening montage of historical B&W photos. 0:37 Title Screen. 1:00 Boeing Model 1 seaplane takes off. 2:06 1960s managers. 3:03 Engineers test and study airplane production process. 3:50 Boeing makes everything including rivets, spars, and wiring. Woman oversees wire strands.
4:17 Engineer installs instrumentation into a cockpit. Window panel is cleaned. 4:32 Missile components aligned 5:00 Minutemen Missiles 5:14 Underwater test facility for astronauts. 5:30 Helicopter cargo bay door opens. Helicopters made for military and public markets include Chinooks and Vertol 107’s. 5:40 Pennsylvania facility sends product to Canada and Asia.
6:00 Boeing builds planes to fly fast and helicopters to fly slow. 6:06 They make “Strange boats to fly over the water” — hydrofoils ‘float’ over water to reduce drag. 6:22 Engineers study moonscapes 6:45 Team oversees large Saturn V rocket stages for NASA’s Apollo program. Engineers view Saturn launch from afar.
7:33 Factories run from Seattle to Wichita. In Washington State, manufacturing facilities are in Seattle, Auburn, Everett and Renton. 7:54 Cargo trucks move large materials. 8:15 “Boeing men” are interested in anything that moves men, machines or materials. 8:35 Wind-tunnels test new designs. Microscopes used to study miniature computer chips.
9:04 Female lab tech 9:29 Jet model mock-up of a 727. Boeing specialists work at international locations, with auxiliary stations in Germany. 10:00 Specialist attends Entwicklungsring Sud Office, a German consortium formed in 1959 to build a vertical take-off interceptor called the VJ 101C.
10:07 Tokyo Airport in Japan. 11:30 Busy TWA terminal at JFK Airport. Terminal audio announces connections to downtown NYC, using heliport for quick access. Boeing men board a Pan Am helicopter, travels to helipad on top of the Pan Am building. 12:40 Boeing employee hails a bicycle pedicab. Men hail taxi in front of Grand Central Station. 12:60 Production extends throughout the globe, building planes for 58 differing carriers. Boeing jets take off or land every 13 seconds.
14:35 Originally, in 1916, Boeing was a modest company with a little factory at the edge of town, with only 21 employees. 14:60 William Boeing stands by an early plane. William’s written statement: “I’ve tried to make the men around me feel as I do. That we’re embarked as pioneers upon a new science and industry, in which our problems are so new and unusual, that it behooves no one to dismiss any novel idea with a statement that it can’t be done… We will let no new improvement in flying pass us by.”
15:53 To preserve history, Boeing used historical plans to build mock-ups of early models. An early production two-man sea-plane was produced, years after its original production, which originally topped out at 75 mph. 16:16 A graphical chart of various airplane models over time is shown. 16:20 Graphics of various models are viewed, including: Boeing’s first Sea-plane, the B&W Model 1, the first B1 model,
17:00 PW9 model was superior to federally designed wood planes. Incorporating arc-welding steel tubes, PW9 flew at 163 mph, 4 miles above the earth. 17:24 Additional military and civilian models: Model 40, Model 80, B9, P26 (equipped with de-icers), Model 247. 19:05 The 314 (a.k.a. Boeing Clipper) held 74 passengers for intercontinental flight. 19:30 The Model 307 Stratoliner, with the first pressurized cabin, allowed flights at 20,000 ft above disturbing weather patterns. 19:50 For military use in WWII, the B17, B29 and B50 models were produced by the thousands.
20:35 New models: C97 Stratofreighter, KC-97 Aerial Tanker, B50 Superfortress, L-15 Scout. 21:00 Jet production models: B47 with swept-back wings, six engines, and high speeds. 21:30 B52 Bomber, a powerful combat plane with 8 jets and extended range. 22:00 Commercial jets allowed civilians to travel long distances: Models 707, 720, 727, 737.
23:30 Boeing production of Minuteman missiles, traveling at 15,000 mph. 24:00 Boeing satellites take moon images. Saturn V takeoff. Jet takeoff filmed from under the belly of the plane. 25:30 Boeing makes things of the Imagination. It now employs 115,000. 26:00 Animation of space explorers show Boeing’s future.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
