William McPherson Allen
William McPherson Allen (September 1, 1900 – October 28, 1985) was an American businessman in the aviation industry who served as the President of Boeing from 1945 to 1968.Following the death of Boeing president Philip G. Johnson in 1944, Chairman Claire Egtvedt was tasked with appointing his replacement.In 1966, Allen asked Malcolm T. Stamper to spearhead production of the new 747 airplane on which the company's future was riding.This was a monumental engineering and management challenge, and included construction of the world's biggest factory in which to build the 747 at Everett, Washington, a plant which is the size of 40 football fields.Allen is profiled in Senator John McCain's and Mark Salter's 2007 book, Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them.