WHEREAS, Aviation pioneer Wong Tsoo became a naval cadet at age 12 in his native country of China and traveled to England in 1909 at age 16 to advance his naval studies before going on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study aeronautics; and

WHEREAS, Upon becoming one of the first graduates of MIT's aeronautics program, Wong Tsoo was hired as an engineer directly by Bill Boeing in 1916 at his newly incorporated "Pacific Aero Products Company" in Seattle, the predecessor to what would later become the Boeing Company; and

WHEREAS, Wong Tsoo extensively redesigned the company's Model C seaplane, a biplane trainer that had been passed over by the United States Navy until the government's World War I order for 56 of his redesigned aircraft established Boeing as a profitable production company; and

WHEREAS, Without Wong Tsoo's careful eye for detail on the Model C project it is uncertain if the Boeing Company would have become the corporate giant that it is today, employing more than 80,000 people in Washington and about 164,000 worldwide; and

WHEREAS, Wong Tsoo returned to China in 1917 to become who many consider to be the "father of aviation" in China, with a hand in designing about 30 planes and rising to the position of chief secretary of the China National Aviation Corporation and professor of aviation at the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan before his death in 1965; and

WHEREAS, Wong Tsoo's legacy has been passed on through his students, many of whom went on to distinguished careers with some of the largest aerospace companies in the world; and

WHEREAS, United States aviation history may have largely forgotten the pioneering contributions of Wong Tsoo if not for the extensive research efforts of Key Donn, a Senior System Architect at Boeing and past president of the Boeing Asian-American Professional Association; and

WHEREAS, Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Donn, a permanent display paying tribute to Wong Tsoo is now in the historical "Red Barn" section of the Museum of Flight in Seattle;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State Senate honor the 100th anniversary of Wong Tsoo's short, but remarkable, tenure with Boeing as its first engineer and his lifetime of achievements to the aviation industry as a whole; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to the Museum of Flight and to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle for further transmission to the National Cheng Kung University Museum in Tainan, Taiwan.