Edward Curtis Wells: Senior-Vice President Of Boeing
Edward Curtis Wells, Senior vice president of Boeing
Edward Wells was born on August 26, 1910 in Boise Idaho. He graduated from Stanford university with a bachelors degree in engineering in 1931. Edward then joined boeings engineering staff the same year. In 1943, Wells was named Boeings cheif engineer. Wells was one of the key desingers of the B-17 flying fortress, one of the most iconic planes of WWII and the Boeing 747, which is still in use today.
The B-17, possibly one of the best bombers of WWII was first introduced in 1938 but devoloped in 1935. In July of 1935 the first b-17 took off from Boeing field in Seattle, but was called the model 299 at the time. It was desinged for a competition to replace the obsolete bombers the army had …show more content…
The crash was caused because the pilot still had the gust locks engaged . Even though the plane crashed the contractors still seemed pleased with the plane, so Boeing countined to build and improve on the model 299. In February of 1938, the B- 17 broke records flying a 28 hour flight from Miami, Florida to Buenos Aires. The flight was over 5000 miles and the crew the Mackay Trophy. Soon afterwards the military ordered 3000 B-17s. When WWII first broke out, 20 of the first B- 17s were delivered to RAF as training planes, but were used in combat. As expected they performed poorly with the .50 cal machine guns freezing and bombs missing their targets. Boeing addressed these problems by making the B-17 D, which had two more .30 cal machine guns, self sealing tanks, and many other improvements. In september of 1941 B-17 E model was made, with a stronger tail and 2 new .50 cal machine guns. All the guns were upgraded to .50 cal except for the nose guns and it was capable of traveling well over 200mph with a full payload. But it didn’t stop there, Boeing soon realeased the B-17F, sporting 11 .50 machine guns, but that took a toll on its speed reducing its max speed to 299mph. While having 11 machine guns, the B-17F was still not capable of taking a head on
Edward Wells was born on August 26, 1910 in Boise Idaho. He graduated from Stanford university with a bachelors degree in engineering in 1931. Edward then joined boeings engineering staff the same year. In 1943, Wells was named Boeings cheif engineer. Wells was one of the key desingers of the B-17 flying fortress, one of the most iconic planes of WWII and the Boeing 747, which is still in use today.
The B-17, possibly one of the best bombers of WWII was first introduced in 1938 but devoloped in 1935. In July of 1935 the first b-17 took off from Boeing field in Seattle, but was called the model 299 at the time. It was desinged for a competition to replace the obsolete bombers the army had …show more content…
The crash was caused because the pilot still had the gust locks engaged . Even though the plane crashed the contractors still seemed pleased with the plane, so Boeing countined to build and improve on the model 299. In February of 1938, the B- 17 broke records flying a 28 hour flight from Miami, Florida to Buenos Aires. The flight was over 5000 miles and the crew the Mackay Trophy. Soon afterwards the military ordered 3000 B-17s. When WWII first broke out, 20 of the first B- 17s were delivered to RAF as training planes, but were used in combat. As expected they performed poorly with the .50 cal machine guns freezing and bombs missing their targets. Boeing addressed these problems by making the B-17 D, which had two more .30 cal machine guns, self sealing tanks, and many other improvements. In september of 1941 B-17 E model was made, with a stronger tail and 2 new .50 cal machine guns. All the guns were upgraded to .50 cal except for the nose guns and it was capable of traveling well over 200mph with a full payload. But it didn’t stop there, Boeing soon realeased the B-17F, sporting 11 .50 machine guns, but that took a toll on its speed reducing its max speed to 299mph. While having 11 machine guns, the B-17F was still not capable of taking a head on