WWI aircraft construction plant

[George Albo]

Just ran into this and wanted to share.

[john e. holliday]

What a find.  Imagine if we tried to build aircraft like that now.   Factory workers in ties and dresses.  OSHA would have a field day.

[Mike Scholtes]

Amazing! At around minute 30 there is a long section on building huge laminated wood propellers. I never imagined the process would be so automated and precise in 1917-1918 era. Considering airplanes had only existed in any real sense for about 10 years at that point, very impressive to see how scientific the construction methods were. I also had no idea that Handley-Page and other Brit aircraft were built under license in the USA. The crating and shipping of aircraft to the war zone on the other side of the ocean reminded me of the 1944-vintage training film about assembling crated P-47s using only simple hand tools and the crate the plane came in. And a lot of manpower.

[Bill Adair]

George,

Thanks for posting that video. Watched and enjoyed every minute of the film.

Sadly, I suspect those factories injured and killed more people than the aircraft they produced.

Imagine, no safety glasses or hearing protection for the workers. No wonder much of that generation was nearly deaf in later years!

Bill

[George Albo]

Amazing! At around minute 30 there is a long section on building huge laminated wood propellers. I never imagined the process would be so automated and precise in 1917-1918 era. Considering airplanes had only existed in any real sense for about 10 years at that point, very impressive to see how scientific the construction methods were. I also had no idea that Handley-Page and other Brit aircraft were built under license in the USA. The crating and shipping of aircraft to the war zone on the other side of the ocean reminded me of the 1944-vintage training film about assembling crated P-47s using only simple hand tools and the crate the plane came in. And a lot of manpower.

Since I like these type of films, I could not resist looking for the training film you just mentioned. Here it is. Great stuff! 



George Albo

[Fredvon4]

As a current wood worker this was a long and tedious film but I did appreciate it on many levels

Cutting, transporting, slicing to usable sizes, drying, sorting, testing, re-sorting, transporting, cataloging, cut to dimension, stock in bins, resorting again,

The per plane a day output very amazing in the ancient times.... almost every school I went to for logistics managment ( 3 in 20 years) taught process controls-- and supply side logistics.... this film confirmed/demonstrated a LOT of what I was taught 40~50 years later in the 70s~80s

slightly more intense (vs US aircraft MFG)  is the WWI and WWII SHIP building efforts....

Lots of You-Tube on these historical subjects...easy to waste a whole afternoon watching instead of yard mowing

Boeing will make 900+* of one very sought after aircraft this year.........IF they can convince the world to lift the grounding and trust them again

900/12=75 per month production.... astounding on MANY supply chain levels

Ford F150 annual production will blow your mind...even you Dodge or Chevy fans

Afterword....   Giant ass trucks with 200' long wind mill blades is down to 3 a day currently heading to the Edwards plateau .... (my town, Lampasas is a crossroads of Texas Hwy 183, 281, and 190)

Approximately 10,700 towers only producing 3% of all Texas energy....

Cost per KWH is off set by tax dollars but deep study reveal wind based electricity is not really sustainable.....

In Fact as a tower/generator fails, catches fire, they do not even salvage it ....They just continue to pay the rancher the $2000 per month to host the smelly burnt dilapidated structure for all time....because it is cheaper.... removal and disposal is exceptionally costly.....

Of the 10K+ wind generators in Texas 35 are destroyed and left to deteriorate on the property

A rancher getting $2k per month does not care if it produces

There is a point here somewhere but Jack Daniels n Miller Lite makes it elusive to me right now

[FLOYD CARTER]

It's amazing that we actually won the war!