The Making of Boeing's 787 'Dreamliner'

In 1916, William Boeing (William) and George Westervelt (Westervelt) founded the Pacific Aero Products Company. Later, in 1917, the name was changed to Boeing Airplane Company. Boeing began manufacturing aircraft for the US military during the World War I. In 1922, Edgar N. Gott became the company's president and during his tenure, the US Navy awarded Boeing a contract to build a primary trainer (a plane for training pilots). In 1927, the Model 40A mail plane won a US Post Office contract to deliver mail between San Francisco and Chicago. Boeing Air Transport (BAT) was formed to run airmail services. BAT also trained pilots, set up airfields and provided maintenance staff for these services...

To select the best systems, technologies and design concepts for the 787, Boeing consulted with twenty international systems suppliers and grouped them under the '787 Systems Technology Team' (Refer Table II for the list of team members). The team was announced in June 2003 and consisted of materials and aircraft structure experts who helped Boeing in selecting the materials and systems to be used in the aircraft. The prime intention of Boeing was to make open and elegant systems which would allow the 787 to be updated with the latest technological advancements throughout its lifetime and provide increased functionality...