Ford and B-24's

[BangkokDean]

Ford and B-24's...........................
Bet you didn't know that Ford had its own pilots to test the B-24
Liberators it was building for the ARMY at the rate of one every 55
MINUTES!! A little bit of history for aviation buffs.This was BEFORE
Pearl Harbor! Ford's B-24 Bomber Plant at Willow Run, Mich. Henry Ford
was determined that he could mass produce bombers just as he had done
with cars. He built the Willow Run assembly plant and proved it. It was
the world's largest building under one roof. This film will absolutely
blow you away - one B-24 every 55 minutes.
ADOLF HITLER HAD NO IDEA THE U.S. WAS CAPABLE OF THIS

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKlt6rNciTo[/ame]

 

[Sam Cogley]

Churchill did.

 

[mrvette]

Then add GM and Chrysler into the mix......I found the tours of various auto assy plants very interesting, decades ago, they not built for making just CARS, but stuff that is MUCH larger as in larger than battle tanks even.....

Yea Buddy.....:bump::bounce: And in them daze it was done by Rosie the Riveter.....:amazed:

 

[Red77]

A few months ago I read a book called The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm and America at War by A.J. Baime. It went into great detail about all the events leading up to the successful production of the B-24 at Willow Run. Being a former Ford mechanic and now an engineer I found it an amazing read. My great uncle was a Flight Engineer on the B-24 with the 450th Bomb Group in WWII. I inherited all his history books when he passed away and when I'm not busy raising my kids, I get to read them. My reading is usually split between Corvettes and WWII history anyway.

 

[VegasJen]

It's amazing the way America repurposed its industry for the war effort. I read some time ago that the Springfield M1 Garand was produced under license by something like 17 different manufacturers including International Harvester, Singer (sewing machines) and Rockola.
I genuinely wonder if we could do such a thing today.

 

[BangkokDean]

It's amazing the way America repurposed its industry for the war effort. I read some time ago that the Springfield M1 Garand was produced under license by something like 17 different manufacturers including International Harvester, Singer (sewing machines) and Rockola.
I genuinely wonder if we could do such a thing today.

Unfortunately if we go to a world war today, say with China we would have to have China build the tanks, air planes and munitions for us to fight them.
When WW2 started the USA had manufacturing capabilities, so I guess today all we can do is throw Big Macs and KFC at the enemy.:banghead:

 

[Red77]

So then cholesterol becomes a weapon of mass destruction...

 

[Sam Cogley]

It's amazing the way America repurposed its industry for the war effort. I read some time ago that the Springfield M1 Garand was produced under license by something like 17 different manufacturers including International Harvester, Singer (sewing machines) and Rockola.
I genuinely wonder if we could do such a thing today.

Unfortunately if we go to a world war today, say with China we would have to have China build the tanks, air planes and munitions for us to fight them.
When WW2 started the USA had manufacturing capabilities, so I guess today all we can do is throw Big Macs and KFC at the enemy.:banghead:

The US has a lot more manufacturing capability than people think, even if we've offshored too much of it. That might not be apparent from the other side of the planet... :harhar: