The first paying passengers of the Boeing Airplane Company were charged $15 for a 15-20 minute sightseeing tour over the city of Seattle, taking off in one of the Boeing factory's seaplanes from their Lake Union hangar.
This image of the first one of the first commercial flights was taken on Lake Union. It is not clear if this image is of the very first commercial flight, with passenger J. S. Allbright, or if this is another of the customers on that first day of service. Pilot Edward Willits "Eddie" Hubbard (1889-1928) is flying a Boeing Model C (or Boeing Model 2), the first "all-Boeing" design and the company's first financial success. This plane is probably C-700, which William Boeing and Hubbard had flown March 3, 1919, on the first international mail delivery between Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle.
Written on recto: Boeing Plan, May 1919, first trip with paid passengers in history of Boeing Co. Typed on verso: First com'l airplane in Seattle, Boeing. Passengers on flight, iden. May, 1919. Aircraft identified as a model C by Dr. Paul Spitzer, Boeing corporate historian
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, May 2, 1919, page 12
ID Number: SHS11352B
Date: 1919
Physical Description: 1 photographic print mounted on cardboard: b&w ; 4.75 x 6.75 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant.
