many of the bombers built at Willow Run were built in knockdown form for assembly at aircraft plants in the Southwest.
This photograph shows these major assemblies laid out on the cement apron at Willow Run. Note the completed nose fuselage, aft fuselage, empennage and the three wing sections. Most of the necessary furnishings, including wiring, tubing and controls are already installed in these assemblies.
My two favorite B-24 stories, taken from a comprehensive book about the aircraft:
ReplyDeleteThe B-24 plant that Ford built was L-shaped with a carrousel about 2/3 way down the one mile long production line, so the building wouldn't cross a county line. Which in turn would make things bad as far as taxes were concerned. So never mind powercrazed Nazi Übermenschen and fanatical Kamikaze pilots; you just DON'T fuck with the IRS....
Then there was the time a RAF B-24 flying courier mail to Stockholm, and landed with a cracked cylinder. The Brits had a Swede go to the other end of Arlanda Airport, where the Germans had some DC-2s parked, bought before the war, and which used the same engines.
Sorry, they didn't have any spare cylinders available - but they'd arrange to have one flown up from Berlin on the next courier flight!
So there we have it: Just because your countries are at war, you can still be a good sport and help out a fellow pilot.
The plane is actually a B-24.
ReplyDeleteVery cool pic and info. Never heard of them shipping major components for final assembly.
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