The year was 1916, just 12½ years after the Wright brothers had their first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. World War I was underway in Europe, and the U.S. would join the fray the following year.

On July 4, 1914, William Boeing, along with his friend George Conrad Westervelt, took their very first plane ride. It was in a Curtiss seaplane helmed by Terah Maroney, a barnstorming young pilot who ...

See the most sumptuous and luxurious flying boats, seaplanes, and Pan Am clippers from the golden age of air travel.