Going like a Boeing

This expression, a modern version of the expression going great guns and which means performing vigorously with great gusto and speed was prompted by the worldwide success of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet which started flying commercially in the 1970s. By the late 1970s, the expression had become commonplace throughout the English-speaking world but its origin or coinage remains unknown. William E. Boeing founded the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle in 1917 when he changed the name of his company Pacific Aero Products, founded the year before, to his own name Boeing.