Tag Archives: 1950s

…A Gift Horse

Thursday Hidden Treasure

We currently call the Museum of History & Industry by its acronym, “MOHAI” but it wasn’t always the case. After the museum was built in 1952, it was mainly known by its full name (they didn’t even use the ampersand like we do now!) sometimes with the addition of “given to the City of Seattle and administered by the Seattle Historical Society.” I’m exhausted just writing it. Continue reading »

…Fashion

There are some who might laugh at the idea of Seattle as a fashion capitol, but in 1954 John Doyle Bishop claimed that the city would certainly rank as one of the best dressed in the country. Bishop was the owner of an exclusive women’s shop in Seattle from about 1945 until his death in 1980. With impeccable taste and a charming and flamboyant personality, Bishop was one of the most respected arbiters of style in the city. While the memory of him and his chic store is unforgettable for many Seattleites who lived in the city at the time, it is difficult to find information about him these days. Continue reading »

…Doing it Better

Unveiling of Boeing's new 707 jet, Renton, 1954

Sunday Quote

[Boeing CEO Bill] Allen had seen the Comet, at an air show in Farnborough, England, in 1950, while it was still in production and testing, and his response was curiously evocative of the conversation back in 1914 between Bill Boeing and Conrad Westervelt, the one that had launched the company.

“I think we could build a better!” Boeing had told Westervelt that day on Lake Washington.

At a dinner in London just after the air show, Bill Allen had a question for one of his top engineers, Maynard Pennell. “How do you like the Comet?” “We could do better,” said Pennell. Allen thought about it some more, and even zipped himself up in a flight suit for a test of various military jets. He was impressed not only by the speed, but also by the lack of vibration and noise, compared with the rat-a-tat motion and roar of a propeller airliner.

[...]

… A month later Allen got the board’s go-ahead, and he told his engineers to draw up some plans but keep it all quiet for a few months. Then in the summer of 1952, the consummate lawyer issued the most carefully crafted of statements – complete with a suggestion, though not an explicit statement, that perhaps Boeing had been at work on the idea far longer than it really had been. “The Boeing Company,” announced Bill Allen, “has for some time been engaged in a company-financed project that will enable it to demonstrate a prototype jet airplane of new design to the armed services and the commercial airlines in the summer of 1954.”

Taken from Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World by Sam Howe Verhovek. The quote describes in part Boeing’s decision to invest in jet technology, starting on the path to create the Boeing 707, the first commercially successful jetliner.

Jet Age is available in the Museum Gift Shop or from Amazon.com.