Frontiers July 2014 17 The Netherlands has been a pioneer in aviation for more than a century, and Boeing has long been part of that Dutch journey—as a partner, customer and supplier. Last year, the Netherlands celebrated 100 years of military aviation and the 60th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. The Netherlands is an important Boeing Defense, Space & Security customer, flying both Apache and Chinook helicopters. The country’s air force also was the first international customer for the AH-64D Apache combat helicopter. Dutch aviation pioneer Fokker rose from modest beginnings in 1911 to become the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer in 1925. An early Fokker U.S. subsidiary, Fokker Aircraft Corp. of America, later became part of Boeing heritage company North American Aviation. Since then, Fokker and Boeing have developed a number of significant partnerships over the past two decades. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, part of the Air France–KLM Group, is one of the world’s oldest international airlines. KLM has been flying Boeing airplanes since the early 1930s, beginning with the DC-2 built by Boeing heritage company Douglas Aircraft. Today, KLM and Air France combined have one of the largest fleets of 777 jetliners in the world and have ordered 787 Dreamliners. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Boeing Netherlands has more than 150 employees. They include representatives of all of the company’s business units and some of its subsidiaries, including Jeppesen and Aviall. Shep Hill, president, Boeing International, and senior vice president, Business Development and Strategy, said the Netherlands is important to Boeing, both for great customers and for local expertise that is boosting the “Netherlands is helping us develop new, creative partnering models.” —Matt Ganz, president, Boeing Germany and Northern Europe PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: A view of Amsterdam at night. CITY: SHUTTERSTOCK; AIRPLANE: BOEING PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Frontiers July 2014 Issue
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