Author Topic: Name this (3) (Read 985 times)

Masherbrum · « **Reply #15 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:02:30 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Wolfala
1 B-24 per hour. Holy ****.

Yes Wolf actually the figure was 1 B-24 every 59 minutes. Not much remains of the old facility. Just the large, long building, the rest has been taken away by time, remodels and more recently a fire. A couple of years back the Yankee Air Museum hanger caught fire (and it was the oldest original hanger from Willow Run Airfield) and they JUST got their B-17 and a B-24. The B-24 was brought out of the hanger by a WWII era tug AS THE HANGER COLLAPSED.

I'm going to be donating a few things to them. Drills, maybe some actual unfired WWII ammo, and other stuff. The still fly the B-17 and now they are taking rides in the C-47 that they just finished a restore on.

BaDkaRmA158Th · « **Reply #16 on:** March 19, 2007, 11:35:13 AM »

Man, built well or not..i would want a few more hours before i would fly mine.
"ehy, you just spend a few more hours making sure everything is welded fully..alright mac?"

Loose a wing because someone wanted to go to lunch early

frank3 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 21, 2007, 03:45:15 AM »

I'm not sure there were many occasions of faulty construction, perhaps because many airplanes didn't have a long life-span anyway (due to hazardous flying circumstances above Germany!)

But I think the majority of the aircraft were build well enough

Masherbrum · « **Reply #18 on:** March 21, 2007, 08:39:42 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by BaDkaRmA158Th
Man, built well or not..i would want a few more hours before i would fly mine.
"ehy, you just spend a few more hours making sure everything is welded fully..alright mac?"

Loose a wing because someone wanted to go to lunch early

Different work ethic, and different time. You CANNOT compare that generation to today's.

CptA · « **Reply #19 on:** March 21, 2007, 09:11:40 AM »

I had the great privilege of knowing the late Captain E.C. Spencer, chief pilot for Zantop Air Transport until his retirement.

He was a B-24 instructor and USAAC test pilot who worked at Willow Run during the war. Each and every plane that came off the line was inspected, tested, and flown by Army Air Corps pilots and aircrew.

Yes, mistakes were found, but they were corrected before the planes were accepted by the Air Corps, and then turned over to civilian and military ferry pilots to deliver the planes to their new units.

Most errors were small, like missing or badly set rivets, but sometimes they were more serious, like rudder or aileron control cables installed backwards.

The pilots who had to fly these planes for the first time were understandably VERY careful.

CptA

gripen · « **Reply #20 on:** March 22, 2007, 03:49:04 AM »

There was plenty of problems in the beginning of the production at Willow Run (late 1942) and large percentage of planes needed mods, fixes etc. But at the peak of the production (1944/1945) the quality was probably as good (if not better) as elsewhere in the similar plants.

I don't think that mass production itself causes quality problems (in reality situation is probably quite opposite). Ford was car manufacturer and it just took just some time to learn to mass produce airplanes.