Tsu Wong did all right, helped launch Boeing

Life is stranger than fiction. In 1916, the Pacific Aero-Products company tested its first all-original plane. The plane was designed by a Chinese engineer who was, if I understand the linked article correctly, working at this company between a stint studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his return to China.

The Model C naval trainer designed by Tsu Wong led to a military contract for the company, which reincorporated as the Boeing Airplane Company.

And the rest is history, as they say.

But without a certain Chinese man coming to the United States to study, and then helping lay the foundation for our aviation industry, who knows what might have happened?

To see a picture of the Model C, see the title-linked article, "Pacific Aero-Products (later Boeing Airplane Co.) tests its first all-original airplane on November 23, 1916". (It's at www.historylink.org, which is a good site for Washington state history in general.)

For more, see "Boeing History: Beginnings - Building a Company" at http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/history/article.asp?id=404, and "The Early Years of Boeing, 1916-1930" at http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/boeing-early/Aero17.htm.