File:Boeing 247-D - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 2012-05-15 (7276905570).jpg

A Boeing 247-D on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Engineer William E. Boeing founded the company that bears his name in Seattle, Washington, in 1916. he supplied wooden seaplanes to the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War I, and in 1923 developed the the Boeing P-12 fighter. The company also built mail planes. Boeing's mail planes got larger, and began making room for passengers. In July 1929, the Boeing 80 biplane passenger airliner made its first flight.

The success of the Boeing 80 led to a new design initiative in 1932. This effort led to the creation of the Boeing 247, whose first flight was on February 8, 1933. It entered service in 1934.

The 247 originally had a Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engine. Boeing started a passenger airline, United Air Lines. It asked the United Air Lines pilot to review the 247's design. They did, and demanded a smaller enginer and smaller airplane. They felt pilots couldn't handle the powerful Hornet, and that airfields weren't able to handle such a big plane. George Mead, Pratt & Whitney's chief engineer, thought this was nonsense. But Pratty & Whitney's president, Frederick Rentschler, gave in.

Nonetheless, the Boeing 247 was a remarkable aircraft. It had an aluminum cabin, cantilevered wings, retractable landing gear, moveable control surfaces, an autopilot, and deicing features in the wings. The cabin was heated, air conditioned, and sound-proof. It carried a pilot, co-pilot, flight attendant, and 14 passengers.

The 247 could cross the country in 20 hours -- eight hours faster than its nearest competitor. It was even faster than the premier fighter aircraft of its day, the Boeing P-12.

To show off the 247's capabilities, Boeing entered it in the 1934 MacRobertson Race from England to Australia. A Boeing 247D flown by Col. Roscoe Turner and Clyde Pangborn (its passenger seating stripped out and extra fuel tanks added) came in second place -- behind the Douglas DC-2.

The Turner/Pangborn 247D was flown by United Air Lines until 1937, and then for two years as a private executive plane. A federal agency, the Air Safety Board, purchased it in 1939 and used it for safety testing purposes for 14 years. The agency then donated it to the Smithsonian.