Clairmont L. "Claire" Egtvedt (October 18, 1892 – October 19, 1975) was an airplane designer and president and chairman of the Boeing Company. Along with Ed Wells, he is considered to be the father of the Boeing B-17 bomber.[2]
Clairmont L. Egtvedt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 18, 1892 |
| Died | October 19, 1975 (aged 83) |
| Education | University of Washington |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman and engineer |
| Title | President and CEO, Boeing |
| Term | 1933-1939, 1944-1945[1] |
| Predecessor | Philip G. Johnson |
| Successor | William McPherson Allen |
| Spouse |
Evelyn Smith Egtvedt
(m. 1926–1975) |
| Parent(s) | Sjur Pedersen Egtvedt Mary Ruble |
Egtvedt was chief engineer on airplanes such as the B-1 mailplane, Boeing Model 15 and Boeing Model 21 pursuit airplanes, and the Boeing Model 40 airliner-mailplane. Though promoted to the executive ranks, he also participated heavily the design of the Boeing Model 80, XB-15, and B-17 models.[3] As president, and later chairman of Boeing he oversaw and approved the development of the B-47, B-52, 707, 727,737, and 747. Flight Global ranked Egtvedt 2nd behind William McPherson Allen as most impactful Boeing boss.[4]
Biography
editBorn just outside Stoughton, WI in 1892,[5][6] Egtvedt was the son of Sver Egtvedt, a Norwegian immigrant, and Mary (Ruble) Egtvedt, a first generation Norwegian-American. Egtvedt was raised in a tight-knit ethnic community. Egtvedt attended high school in Stoughton, where he played basketball and was a track champion. The family moved to Seattle, WA in 1911, settling in the Scandinavian neighborhood of Ballard.[5]
Egtvedt (along with his fellow future Boeing chairman, Philip G. Johnson) was hired by William E. Boeing as a draftsman straight out of the University of Washington College of Engineering in 1917.[5][6][7][8][page needed] Egtvedt's ability became immediately apparently to Bill Boeing, who would recollect that Egtvedt "took to the aircraft engineering very readily".[9] Egtvedt rose quickly, becoming chief engineer by the early 1920s.
In 1922, the aircraft industry was suffering a debilitating downturn due to a market flooded with World War I surplus aircraft.[10] Bill Boeing was digging deep into his own pockets to make payroll, the craftsmen on the shop floor were building furniture, and any aircraft manufacturing that was occurring was of other people's designs (the GAX airplanes and Thomas-Morse fighters). Egtvedt knew the importance of developing new products, not just from a business standpoint, but from a technical proficiency standpoint. Egtvedt confronted Boeing, declaring, "We are building airplanes, not cement sidewalks!"[3][page needed] Egtvedt convinced Boeing that he had to allow his engineering staff to start designing airplanes again. A year later, the highly successful Boeing PW-9 fighter first flew.[11] A whole family of successful fighters followed, along with Boeing's first commercial airliners the Model 40 mailplane and subsequent Model 80 airliner.[12][page needed]
After becoming the company's vice president in 1926, Egtvedt continued to push the company's airplane designs forward, helping define the configuration of the seminal Model 247. Under Egtvedt's watch, Boeing shifted from producing small pursuit aircraft to large bombers and commercial aircraft. At Egtvedt's direction, the company invested its limited resources into projects such as the B-17, Boeing 307 Stratoliner, Boeing 314 Clipper, paving the way for Boeing to become the premier manufacturer of large airplanes.[13] For his role in creating the XB-15 and B-17 bombers, Egtvedt is often referred to as "Father of the Four Engine Bomber".[2][page needed]
Egtvedt was named chairman of the Boeing Airplane Company in 1935, following the dissolution of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. He remained in this role until his retirement in 1966.[6][14] Under his stewardship as chairman, Boeing embarked on the sequence of airplane development that has come to define the company: the B-29, B-47, B-52, and finally the first of the 7-series family of jets, the 707, 727, and 737.
Egtvedt was named an Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus of the University of Washington in 1957.[15]
Egtvedt died at his home in Seattle in 1975.[6]
References
edit- ^ "Aerospace Pioneers: Boeing leaders through the years" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2024. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
- ^ a b Redding, Robert and Yenne, Bill, Boeing: Planemaker to the World (Revised), Thunder Bay Press, 1997 ISBN 0-517-42270-0
- ^ a b Mansfield, Harold, Vision: The Story of Boeing, New York: Popular Library, 1966 OCLC 1478117
- ^ "Boeing Bosses: All 10, in Order of Impact", Flight Global, https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-bosses-all-10-in-order-of-impact-414295/
- ^ a b c "Ex-Stoughton Lad Created This: Claire Egtvedt Fathered First Flying Fort". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, WI. July 7, 1943. p. 11. Retrieved November 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "Flying Fortress Father Dead". The Daily Chronicle. Centralia, WA. October 21, 1975. p. 8. Retrieved November 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Executive Biography of Clairmont L. Egtvedt". Boeing. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
- ^ Serling, Robert J., Legend and Legacy, St. Martins Press, 1991 ISBN 0-312-05890-X
- ^ Boeing Historical Archives, subject file "William E. Boeing Interviews". Harold Mansfield and Ren Phillips interview with William E. Boeing, Feb. 15, 1955
- ^ "Shutting Down the Aeronautical Industry," Aviation, Vol. XVI, No. 11, 17 March 1924, pp. 282-283
- ^ Rickard, J., "Boeing PW-9," http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_boeing_PW-9.html, [cited 12 May 2016]
- ^ Bowers, Peter M. Boeing Aircraft Since 1916. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1989 ISBN 0-87021-037-8
- ^ "Executive Biography of Clairmont L. Egtvedt", The Boeing Company, http://www.boeing.com/history/pioneers/clairmont-l-egtvedt.page
- ^ "Claire Egtvedt", Boeing Historical Archives, People Files
- ^ http://www.washington.edu/alumni/about-uwaa/awards/asld/ University of Washington Alumni Awards: ASLD
Further reading
edit- "Former Wisconsin Man Responsible for Boeing's Fighting, Peace Giants". The Milwaukee Journal. 1 December 1944.[permanent dead link]
- "History of the Egtvedt's, A Model of Planned Giving" (PDF). The Kenney Quarterly. Spring 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
- Johnson, Tracy (18 February 2004). "A $20 million tug of war over a widow's will". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- Lee, Jonathan P. (9–13 January 2017). "The Sky Was No Limit": The Story of Claire Egtvedt and the Boeing Company. 55th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aerospace Sciences Meeting. Grapevine, Texas. doi:10.2514/6.2017-0113.
- Shearer, Benjamin F. (2007). Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 265–. ISBN 978-0-313-33421-4.
- Thomas, Jr., Robert McG. (21 October 1975). "Claire Egtvedt of Boeing, Developer of B-17, Is Dead". The New York Times.
- van den Linden, F. Robert (1991). The Boeing 247: The First Modern Airliner. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-80381-4.
External links
edit- Morgan, Sue. "The office of early Boeing chief engineer Claire Egtvedt, in the Red Barn exhibit, Museum of Flight, Seattle". National Geographic Your Shot. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017.