JuLy 2015 37 tucked in a slip cover and will sell for $49 in The Boeing Store (commercial outlets will sell a 192-page version). In preparing the book, he worked in concert with filmmakers preparing a documentary on Boeing’s centennial. The author said he was struck by the devotion to the job by the assemblyline workers, people who declared rather pointedly that the specific section of airplane they worked on, whether it was the flight deck or a wing, belonged to them. “That told me about pride of ownership,” Banham said. “To be engaged with thousands of others in the manufacturing of something so extraordinary, and not just mechanically and technologically, it serves a purpose. They’re not just building a machine that’s going to be cut from metal; this was important for humankind, for global economics.” In combing through Boeing’s 10 decades, Banham said two industry-shaping events stood out to him as a writer: Boeing’s postwar discovery of German swept-wing research and the subsequent pioneering development of the revolutionary Boeing B-47 bomber; and the selling of the 747 jumbo jet to Pan American Airlines, even with the airline’s founder and leader, Juan Trippe, dubious over the design. Banham recounts how Boeing engineers brought rope to a large conference room and stretched it out to show the width of the 747, a ploy that won over Trippe and the others. “I can see that period—it’s like Mad Men,” Banham said, referring to the fictional TV show. “It’s got that promotional quality to it. I loved that story because I can see those guys in their ’60s-era suits and ’60s-era haircuts, with their marvelous idea of ‘how we’re going to sell them on this,’ and they did.” n daniel.w.raley@boeing.com Banham is an accomplished storyteller from Los Angeles who found ample inspiration in sizing up Boeing’s worldwide impact and beyond, whether through the company’s commercial travel inroads, collaboration in outer space exploration or other technological advances. “The importance of Boeing on global culture is what appealed to me,” he said. “Few companies can say, ‘We changed the world in which we live.’ Boeing can say that.” Banham’s Boeing book is his 24th; many of his previous books are histories of major American companies, among them The Ford Century and Coors: A Rocky Mountain Legend. He’s a respected former business journalist whose work has appeared in The Journal of Commerce, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes, among other publications. Banham needed eight months to research and write the 256-page custom edition of Higher, which comes
Frontiers July 2015 Issue
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