The Boeing Renton Factory is built on land reclaimed by the lowering of the level of Lake Washington in 1916. From 1916 until 1936 it belonged to the family of Pioneer Washington Coal Industrialist Charles H. Burnett for whom Burnett Avenue and Burnett Park in Renton are named. Burnett acquired the land intending to use it for coal storage and shipment. Amy Louise Burnett Bond, Charles Burnett's daughter, whose mother died young, was raised by Mr. and Mrs. Howard Cranston Potter as the foster sister and godmother of Bertha Potter. The Burnett family operated the land as a hay farm. In 1936 Amy Burnett Bond transferred the property back to the state government. It was still mostly semi swamp economically marginal and would cost millions to improve. The property was then transferred by the State of Washington to the federal government at the start of World War II. The Navy Department established an aircraft factory there for production of the Boeing PBB Sea Ranger flying boat. This order was cancelled, however, to free the factory for production of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the factory being transferred to the Army in exchange for use of the North American AviationKansas City factory for production of land based North American B-25 Mitchells for the US Marine Corps as PBJ-1s.
In May 1954 the prototype of what would become the Boeing 707, the Boeing 367-80, was rolled out at the Renton plant starting a long association with the production of the Boeing 707 line. When the first production Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker first flew in August 1956 from Renton it was named City of Renton. The first production Boeing 707 was rolled out at Renton on 28 October 1957 and production continued to the last 707.
In order to produce the twin-engined Boeing 737 a new assembly line was built in 1966 at Renton and the plant is still building the Boeing 737 family. The 737 final assembly building when built was at the time the largest building in the world by volume. New aircraft perform their first flight from the adjacent Renton Municipal Airport and are then flown to Boeing Field for customer preparation. In 2011 after a lengthy negotiation, Boeing and the Machinist Union have agreed to produce the 737 MAX, an improved redesign, at the existing facility in Renton. Boeing opened a completion center in Zhoushan, China, to install interiors for planes built in Renton and delivered to Chinese airlines. Boeing also produces the P-8 Poseidon, a naval variant of the 737, in Renton.
Boeing 747
The first four 747s built were refurbished in the Boeing Renton Factory.
