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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0099.PDF
JANUARY 14TH, 1943 FLIGHT Mohammed and theMountain American Bombers Transported 2,000 Miles for Assembly : World's Largest Trailers WrIEN Henry Ford's great newbomber factory at WillowRun reaches its full stride of production within the next few months the output will be one com- plete Liberator four-engined bomber and two partly assembled Liberators every hour. Already the flow is steadily mounting, and several com- plete sets of partly assembled aircraft are leaving Willow Run daily for assembly plants in the South West of the United States, in addition to a considerable number which fly away from Willow Run's 1,000-acre air- drome. This division of production methods has been necessitated by the fact that Willow Run was designed to produce one Liberator an hour, and the final assembly line was planned accord- ingly. Under actual production con- ditions it has been found that Ford mass-production methods permit the A good impression of the huge size ofthe trailers is conveyed by this picture, which shows three of them leaving theFord Willow Run factory for their destination 2,000 miles away. manufacture of the parts of three Liberators an hour where only one had been thought possible. Since the space required for the assembly line to handle one of these large bombers an hour is 3,100ft. long by 700ft. wide, it will be seen that a vastly greater space even than that available at Willow Run would be required to cope with the complete assembly of three Liberators an hour. Two assembly plants capable of handling these partly built aircraft were already in existence in the South- western States, about 1,800 miles from Willow Run, and the U.S. Government decided to utilise these rather than build new factories in Michigan. To transport the partly assembled Liberators, special trailers have been designed. The size of these huge tractor-trailers is impressive. They are said to be the largest of their type in the world. The trailers are slightly more than 60ft. long, 7ft. 6in. wide and 10ft. high. Two trailers can carry all the com- ponents for one aircraft. One trailer carries the complete fuselage and two Looking down into one of the 60-ft.trailers. Note how closely the Liberator components are packed.On the left is seen one of the com- plete trailers, carrying one-half of aLiberator. rudders. The other contains the wing centre sections, the two outer wings, cowlings, etc., for the four engines, two elevators and the bomb-aimer's enclosure on the lower deck. The tractors have two 100 h.p. engines with synchromesh control. If one engine fails the other is strong enough to pull the loaded trailer at a reasonable speed until a repair station is reached. The combination tractor- trailer is a busy combination and keeps moving 20 hours out of the 24. The drivers alternate in five-hour shifts, leaving four one-hour periods for eat- ing and servicing. The tractors are not kept waiting while loading and unloading is in pro- gress. Extra trailers are used, and the tractor coupled immediately to an empty trailer for the return trip.
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