Engines for Superbombers 

Double-tested, double-assembled? What a truly brutal and honorable quality assurance. Gives me chills.

Not sure where you work but where and complexities but I worked about a month from concept to tool in hand. With today’s modern capabilities of CAD and CnC as well as rapid prototype better and quicker results are the norm.

@@frankbutaric3565I work at a place that has educated people that can write a simple paragraph, with correct grammer.

Thats 53 engines a day! Production levels that would be just a dream these days. When a country is pushed into a corner so to speak, everyone does their bit. Just to look at the machines required to build the parts is more than just mind boggling. Someone somewhere had to design and test these machines and processes even before manufacture. America was more than just a powerhouse of production at that time.

instablaster...

@@bobolulu7615 I would bet that any major car manufacturer can out produce that number. With better reliability and quality control. It was outstanding for its time.

@@frankbutaric3565 today we rely on outsourced parts and labor from adversarial countrys. Plus, It would be a challenge just to keep the EPA and OSHA away as well.

WOW! AMAZING!!

Oh I'd love to see pictures of those micrometers.

@@sjhanson1690 Dear Stacy, It will require a couple days , but I will take some pictures for posting. Sincerely, Fred

@@fredericwidlak2071 My great Grandfather was a B-25 mechanic during WW2. I guess it's because of him that I have an interest in aviation. I'd love to see those pictures as well.

@@cDog8766 Thanks for your interest. I will try to get some pictures to you, as well. Sincerely, Fred.

Heroes

Just to think. A weld might save some kid from dying somewhere in Europe. To be a dad, and do that as a job, I'd throw myself at it too. They are heroes.

Today is a big laugh compared to the effectiveness of the generation of people in the 1940’s !

Yeah, and we were smarter then.

In the face of all that primitive technology, there can only be one conclusion. Just like the Lunar landings, World War 2 never happened. Another massive NASA cover-up.

@@MrValiantAP6 Don't worry, soon Jesus will come and help you navigate the internet and reality.

@@MrValiantAP6 reality, give it a try

@@JoeFlation It appears I have been misunderstood. I had been browsing YT videos that deny that the Moon landings took place. An old argument is that 1960's technology was too primitive to achieve such a feat. Deniers are a reality. My Grand parents fought World War 2.

The engine powered the Douglas Skyraider over Vietnam. I've got a visualization thing about the big bombers, for instance when I see the Lancaster it looks like four Spitfires. I know the cowling isn't the same on the Skyraider and B-29 but I think you see where I'm going with it.

Mean while somebody had to find, drill, pump, refine, all the oil to burn in those engines. War is all about make work in the end. Just think of the global consumption of earth resources in w.w.ll alone. Staggering amounts of every type of material much of it to be dumped at sea at wars end. All so "uncle joe" Stalin could take half the world in his greedy fingers.

This plant was just a tiny pin point in comparison to all the consumption in w.w.ll.

no its more mind boggling we cant do the same anymore without some shitty computer.

@@billbright1755 "all so we could DEFEAT NAZI GERMANY AND THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN" Fixed that for you.

If anyone thinks that they're clever or smart, let them compare themselves to Jacque Droz. Without a doubt the most mind-boggling craftsman I have ever seen...1700 s Look him up and let me know what you think.

And the engines ran on compress air no fuel is or was ever used in aircraft engines. Free energy has been here for over a hundred years

It was remarkable.

WW3 will only last about 40 hours. Why not play Pokemon?

Veronica Kovacic Really? You know nothing about me yet you wish to disrespect me? I'm a USAF vet...I fought for your freedom to act like an ass...Now go on, go play pokemon....You must be one of those safe spacers....I'll send you a safety pin.

FR u r missing the point.

Everything is too easy for people now. Stores are stocked to the ceilings with things you can walk up and grab. It’s been this way for a number of generations now. It’s made us become weak. I dread the day the rug gets pulled out from underneath us. We owe everything we have to the greatest generation. They allowed us to live this life style. Things are so out of balance in our society, we wouldn’t know what to do if things went horribly wrong.

Caught on fire because they swallowed valves, there were mountains of these engines piled high on the island march to Japan because of reliability issues of Wright, after a very low total time they just changed the engine.

And the engines ran on compress air no fuel is or was ever used in aircraft engines. Free energy has been here for over a hundred years

Yeah, building massive fleets of airliners for free to get people together to celebrate Unity and everlasting World Peace, to transport food to stop World starvation. And the list of humanitarian progress does go on ...

@@williamjones7604 idiot

@@kerrytodd3753 Yes an out of the box thinker

the high octane gas of those engines was so volitile the guys used it in their cigarette lighters

That's what China is doing now.

That is "Dino" stuff. Building the same object, an engine, does require far more different components and numbers of units these days. The production process has to be far more efficient to be cost effective and still profitable. No company can survive without profits for future sustainability. And the greed of CEOs and shareholders is another "killer factor" to be accounted for. As usual, the worker is expected to bear the load by accepting low wages. And that is the reason AMERICAN producers gave the job to China. CUT the tax cuts for the top end. CUT their horrendous salaries. And then production might come back.

No shit.

Imagine the sound near the test cells of all those engine's being run up.

Earth moving my friend all that power being unleashed, , ,WOO HOO.

And they did it in months instead of the decades it takes to build anything like that today. What have we become since then?

Tootsie Rolls Candy occupies the northern portion of this plant on Cicero Ave. Apparently they have a Wright 3350 engine on display in their facility.

I was amazed to hear that.

Assembled, test run for several hours, disassembled, inspected for wear due to a defect, then reassembled for delivery. There were a couple of more steps. Yeah, I see your comment was from six years ago, hope everything's going well.

Yes, I remember that base well. I've been thinking of trying to go back for a visit to all the old RAF bases I was involved with. Thanks for bringing her up.

Stuart, I do that quite often when watching these fine stories. WHAT A COUNTRY we once were! Now we are a colliection of crybabies.

@@glenkelley6048 Not so. Unity is still there but not reported because it does not sell newspapers or attract eyeballs. Negative sells and it all started with our 24 hour news cycle and the monster it created and must be fed. Less CNN and Fox news viewing may be the answer.

and the tootsie roll plant

And Cicero was filled with Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Poles that came from desperate poverty and brutal governments long before the war. They worked the hardest as they knew what losing the war would mean better than anyone else. Ask my father and mother.

The design Wright sent to Chrysler had many problems, The engines overheated . Chrysler (Dodge) made hundreds of improvements to the engines to remedy the problems inherent in the Wright design which really helped. The efficiency of this plant reduced the cost to the govt. and saved the taxpayers millions of dollars.

great engine-but not reliable enough.

There were many design flaws in that engine which limited what the B-29 was able to do. The story goes that Stalin wanted a heavy bomber. The TU -5 was an exact copy of the B-29. They took apart B-29s that made emergency landings in Vladivostok. They experienced the same issues on their copy of the engines as on the originals!

Those were lucky guys - all the lonely women and no men around to service them.

+MrShobar WRONG, you're full of BULLSHIT.

+ELECTROSTATIC DISC LIFTERS Go to hell.

MrShobar Another pissed off ignorant fuck.

Yes he was.

I've seen it in writing and on other documentaries. The B-29 project cost hundreds of millions, but the A-bomb was mostly research so didn't cost as much. The uranium refining process was the most expensive part, but still didn't cost as much as 4 Iowa battleships. (at $100 million each!) Why? Lower labor costs mostly, plus so many parts in a plane compared to three bombs.

An aerial photo in 1941 showed miles of empty land surrounding the plant. Now 80 years later aging subdivisions.

Built this huge plant in 10 months

It's to my understanding that every aircraft engine was made that way during the war, even the Packard made Merlin engines, they actually had oval shaped racks that the engines hung from and moved from one stage to the next where each worker had one single part to take off of an engine that had already been test run so that they could be inspected and cleaned, then they moved to another oval shaped rack where reassembly happened.

Any idea how bad the racism and sexism was back then? It was more divided. The difference between now and then, is that people who aren't male and white no longer keep quiet out of fear like they did back then. Not the same thing as not being divided at all.

@@lordgarion514 Actually I do have an idea about how it was then. I was a kid living in Southern California in a city full of defense plants. My mother worked at Douglas Aircraft building C-47’s. Certainly there was racism and sexism then, as there always has been in our country, but enough people worked together to see that we won. These days we would just be calling each other names and running in opposite directions as we are now. These days South Korea, Japan , Germany, New Zealand, etc. all work together to solve their biggest problem. Daily it becomes more obvious that we can’t. But then, each of them has a leader. Hopefully we will get one again next week.

@@jimpal Like I said, the non white males knew to keep their mouths shut. That's not the same thing as "getting along"not by any stretch of the imagination. That's like saying slavery wasn't that big of a deal because they mostly "got along". Except they mostly "got along" because they knew what would happen if they didn't stay "in their place".

It was greatly divided concerning whether or not we should have been involved in the war, Pearl Harbor changed that overnight however. Just like 9/11 did, stop and think about it, the day after the terrorist attacks the people of this country were more united than I've ever seen them in the 55 years I've been on this planet, and two years later when US forces invaded Iraq the vast majority of the people were united in that cause, even more so the year before when they went into Afghanistan.

@@dukecraig2402 You keep wanting to make this a black-white thing. In Long Beach, California during WWII there were few, if any, black people at the defense plants. My issue, which still stands, is the divide between right and left we have now. Look at the photos of those ladies at the WWII aircraft factories with the scarves on their heads. Nowadays half of the workers would want to wear red caps. Such a divide never helps teamwork.

Its on my bucket list to visit Boeing if I can.

thanks

You are quite correct Ray. While everyone is babbling about German aircraft advancements of WW2, most of which were never built or flown in combat, the B-29 is without doubt the most advanced production aircraft of the war. Just about every system pioneered how aircraft are still built today. And Boeing remains the manufacturer of the world's best airliners - although as a Canadian Bombardier builds some great, but smaller, ones too. It is worth just standing outside the Boeing assembly building, but if you get a tour of the place it's mind-boggling. The Museum of Flight nearby also deserves a day-long visit.

Thats neat. As a kid I lived near Farmingdale AND Bethpage[Republis and Grumman]. The dogfights over Great South Bay were fun to watch

Lucky Airbus (Germany, France, UK, Spain, etc) was still at loggerheads. Not to defend the Nazi mob, but there were quite a lot of progressive ideas on the drawing board only to fail an idiot dictator not realising their real potential. The Allies has a great "shopping" rush after the Downfall to boost their aviation industries.

The country and a good part of the world pulled together to fight Fascism. We wouldn't have won without the Arsenal of Democracy -- the factories in the US that had to diversify, letting women work on the shop floors. After the War, women were shoved aside but there was no going back. And since the factories were unionized they were able to demand good wages, health care, two week vacations, 40 hour work weeks and all the support systems that built the middle class and became known as the American Dream. That sense of progress, of unity and fairness is something we've lost. But people feel there's something missing. Thanks for commenting. Hope you had a wonderful 4th.

King Rose, your commentary about what happened during, and after the War, is so true...and there is an economic lesson to be learned from this "real world example" of bottom-up economics, versus "Top down economics"! WW-II seems to have been the last war in modern times in which we all shared in the sacrifices that helped to ensure that our men and women who were directly involved in the war effort, might succeed. Gasoline, rubber, silk stockings, along with many foods, were rationed. In other words we all pitched in to do our part for the war effort. Ergo, when the war ended, there was a pent up demand for consumer goods of all kinds, and the economy boomed. In other words, demand proceeded investment, and if consumers have the means to purchase the desired goods and services, those with capital; the Entrepreneur class will invest in plant and equipment to fulfill the market's demands! Sadly, many Conservatives find this economic Philosophy; Known as Keynesian, flawed. Really? What intelligent investor would spend money to produce goods and services when there is either no demand, nor the ability on the part of the consumer to purchase? Duh, they ain't dumb! Sorry about my wild "economic dissertation" but the aftermath of that war is a real life example of how the Real World, actually works! Kansas voters might want to study Economics 101, obviously; Brownback hasn't!

soaringtractor I too lived during the post War years. Somehow your memories are different than my own.. The economists of that time predicted a great post War recession...and yet that never happened. Why? Because they never took into account that there was a pent up desire to have consumer goods that they had to sacrifice for the War effort. In addition, the young men who went to the War as teenagers, came home as adults...they married and started families. And families need homes; and the demand for housing soared, thereby creating a demand for labor and materials to meet the need. In addition to consumer's needs, there was another factor that lead to an economic boon; technology....the only positive aspect of War.

soaringtractor Perhaps what you say might be true...but I'm still not sure what your point is. Are you saying that our Post War Government was inept? If so; please explain...if that's not your message, please share your position on post war economics...I love to express my opinions on that subject. There's nothing more that I would rather do than to have a friendly debate.....

I duuno about that, Wesley Hill- I think the other positive aspect of war is to avoid being tossed into slavery by inhuman monsters. And let us not forget the economic aspect. That war sure ended the Great Depression, didn't it?

You're absolutely right.

What happened to the plant after the Tucker era?

The Ford Motor Company used it for an assembly plant, then it was used to make candy ("Tootsie Rolls").

Is the plant still working today? And making what?

Went to college Fall of '75 in Quanset Huts that were built for Ford War plant in '42.They are still up as part of Daley College.

Ron Brothers Fascinating. Have to see that some day.

The B-29 "Enola Gay" was built by Martin at Bellevue,Nebraska at what is now Offutt Air Force Base. Paul Tibbets named the B-29 after his mother. I believe "Bockscar" also rolled of the assembly line at Bellevue. I have been through Wendover many times and often thought of the Army Air Corp men who made the journey to Salt Lake City for R&R after grueling work schedules training to deliver the "Fatman" and "Little Boy" weapons. Little Ojo was fast asleep in Albuquerque when the first A bomb components rolled through town going south on US 85 on their way to Trinity site. The Atomic Age and Cold War were just a few years away. See "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes for one of the best accounts ever written about the Manhattan Project.The training at Wendover is covered. The movie "Bombardier" and "Above and Beyond" both have Wendover connections. I believe parts of "Bombardier" were filmed at Kirtland AFB located in Albuquerque. Kirtland trained bombardiers during WW II and I watched many AT-11s fly over our home on the east mesa. Just the ramblings of an 78 year old fart.

Happens now in China or other low wage countries

+C Smith The Internet in general, and RU-vid specifically is peopled by angry lonely people who get no satisfaction in life outside of being hateful, reactionary, and muckraking on their computer. Don't worry about the haters, just be sorry for them.

Half of the fun in watching these RU-vid videos is to read the comments. Some well informed comments punctuated occasionally by foul-mouthed people like ELECTROSTATIC DISC LIFTERS.

@@ightwoman I wish I could be so succinct! Thank you.

13:50 The captions says: "If necessary dildos were packed around the engine to absorb moisture"

Not sure but you can see it in the Ford design. We should ask the Tucker family to chime in.

wesley hill

King Rose Archives That might be instructive...

soaringtractor You are so right...my brother In-law owned one....I was just a kid at the time...if that timeline doesn't make sense; it's because I was a "mistake"...an unintended child....my nearest sibling is 92 years old.The other two have been dead for a while.

wesley hill b

gk10002000 its all irrelevant now...design, manufacturing processes and automation are waaaay more advanced now...also, I don't think in next major war north america will be able to enjoy the piece and quiet during manufacturing they had during ww2.

One of the lesson you can find if you go read "The Strategic Bombing Survey" is that we did NOT bomb German electrical power generating sites..They were in known locations and we and the British for some reason didn't bomb them... And "under constant air attack might have made a bigger dent maybe, if the definition of "precision Daylight Bombing" wasn't 50% of the bombs in a 4 mile radius---which even that the US couldn't manage...The German production of everything was seriously hampered by their class-bound rigid thinking that machine operators must be journeyman level machinists---which is what I've been doing for more or less 40 years..more...The US applied lessons learned mainly by GM in the 30s: specialised single purpose machines carefully designed and manufactured that would allow a guy right off the farm to do ONE OPERATION correctly with minimal trianing--hours or a few days , and still get a correct result..versus the German --and the Italian and the Japanese putting highly skilled machinists behind general purpose machines like ordinary turret lathes or horisontal mills..Our methods requirered far more Process Engineering and planning and much higher capital outlay, but less operator skill and input...and we made scores of thousands while they made hundreds..Same in ships and same in tanks..same in radar, same in code breaking...So many men were involved in production of long range heavy bomber that both USA and Britain had serious shortage of infantrymen despite our population being twice that of Germany's---and by time USA got around to serious levels of fighting, the Germans already having lost nearly 3,000,000 battle dead...and I think you know where 88% of those men died...

gk10002000, You have said it so well....the German people are to be admired for many reasons; .sadly, they "bought into" an Ideology that they hoped would restore pride and prosperity to the "Father Land"! Does not that same hope resonate in America today? Ironically it does...we now have another bombastic egotist that promises to restore America to some imaginary "Camelot" from the past.....

Now it's true that there was significant resistance from both management and workers towards "american" production methods, but the threat of air raids made it impossible from the start to build gigantic factories such as seen here or to use specialised machines that lacked the flexibility to retool for what was needed. Nevertheless, under unimaginable conditions germany still managed to produce over 2000 machines a month in the fall of 1944..

Galland You are right, and that's what I find so astonishing....near the end of the War they almost got their act together...thank goodness time ran out!

My wife's former boss was a B-29 pilot flying out of China. During a TV interview he said the B-29 required all of a 10,000 foot runway to get to takeoff speed of 140 MPH. Many didn't make it, and he lost several buddies when they couldn't lift off.

The women went back home to raise children and be "house wives" There was a huge boom in the economey after the war so, jobs were plentiful. Comnumerism ramped up, the housing industry ramped up etc etc

MrShobar ----- All this talk of the greatest generation is a bit of rose colored hindsight. There was a lot of slacking, graft and outright stealing going on as well. I'm old and a listener. I heard these stories when the older guys guard was down. A friends dad was sent to a plant outside of New York City to straighten out the corruption where the unions were busier stealing than manufacturing. In the London bombings fire fighters and thugs were out stealing everything they could get their hands on. The estimated participation in the black market was 100%. The corruption during the Vietnam war was legendary. I am not buying the BS that other generations were better than the current batch of young people.