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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1280.PDF
554 FLIGHT CANADA'S AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY The American Influence: Production of Sabres at the Canadair Plants PART IV By JAMES HAY STEVENS THE firm of Canadair, Ltd., is the largest airframe-producing concern in Canada today and the very first impression it gives the visitor is one of tough efficiency. It is a direct subsidiary (although now virtually of equal size and value) of the Electric Boat Company of New London, Connecticut, U.S.A., and it is the American style of production that immediately strikes the Britisher. Although as it stands at present the company is a post war organization, its roots go back to 1923, for it was in that year that Canadian-Vickers, Ltd., opened an aviation department and became the first designer and -builder of aircraft in the Dominion. In 1942 this company, engaged by then upon numerous large war contracts—including the manufacture of four hundred Canso amphibians—took over management of a new Government factory at Cartierville Airport, Montreal. In 1944, there was a re-organization and Canadair, Ltd., was formed to exploit the facilities at Cartier ville, while Canadian-Vickers retired from the aircraft scene. Continuing to operate in the unsettled post-war conditions, the company soon became the largest commercial aircraft producer in Canada. It evolved the DC-4M by combining the DC-4 fuselage with DC-6 wings and undercarriage and Rolls-Royce Merlin power plant, so making a hybrid that was politically, as well as operationally, acceptable to the R.C.A.F., B.O.A.C, T.C.A. and C.P.A. Seventy-one of these excellent airliners were built, as well as many spares for both the DC-4 and the DC-6; some 250 C47/DC-3 conversions were also carried out for air lines all over the world. Under the astute leadership of its president, John Jay Hopkins, who recognized the potentialities of Canadair, the Electric Boat Co. acquired the Canadair assets in 1947. The company was energetically re-organized, key personnel were brought in from the U.S.A., and production, which had been faltering, was taken in an iron grip, so that the many outstanding orders were largely completed ahead of schedule. In 1949, the order for Sabres for the R.C.A.F. was placed and the airc-aft were actually being completed so quickly that the first deliveries ran into teething troubles that were still unsolved by the parent company. Today, nearly 300 Sabres have been built and, with orders for the R.A.F. and the U.S.A.F. added to the original, output is being stepped up. Sabre production, which is organized on an elaborate moving assembly line, is concentrated in No. 2 Plant—actually the older war-time buildings. In one large hall, all sub-assembly jigs for wing, fuselage and tail feed into the snake-like assembly line. The immense amount of final preparation, pre-flight and post-flight checking which the highly complex Sabre requires are carried out in the THE first two articles in this series (April 4th and 18th) gave the general picture of the Canadian aircraft industry as it is today. The author is now reviewing the activities of the three main constructors, Avro, Canadair, and de Havilland; the first of these three—taken in alphabetical order—was dealt with last week: the resent article is about Canadair, Ltd. other buildings of this plant. Pressed parts, the Fibreglass radar and aerial fairings, and other details are made in bays of No. 1 Plant. This main factory, which is under one roof in true Ameri can style and can be viewed from a catwalk running the entire length, is a very impressive sight. At the time of my visit, it had been enlarged to include a parking lot and a further large end stores bay was to be incorporated as soon as a building across the road had been completed. A lateral addition running the length of the airfield side was also being considered, although this presented some tricky prob lems in heat loss, since it would include large doors for the exit of complete aircraft. In this vast No. 1 Plant are all the detail shops, press shops, machine shops and heat treatment shops that feed components to the Sabre line. Here also are made the highly-stressed Sabre drop tanks—orders for which run into thousands for the R.C.A.F. alone—and the DC-3 and DC-4 spares. The floor area is being re-planned to take the T-33 assembly line before the end of this year, to be followed later by that for the T-36. The machine-tool capacity at Canadair is large; and very striking are the large-capacity hydraulic presses, the 80-ft. spar millers, the 150-ton HufFord stretch-former and, of course, the Cincinnati Hypro-Skin taper mill used for the Sabre wing skins. As in Plant No. 2, the layout of the floor space is planned to bring the completed parts at each stage as closely as possible to the next operation. This concen tration upon work flow, where every foot of movement is studied, is quite one of the features of the Canadair factory. With receipt of the Sabre order, Canadair started an extensive programme of sub-contracting. On that order they have between thirty and forty firms doing machined parts alone. Since they are an approved firm, they are directly responsible for the sub-contractor's work and they provide "lead hands" and foremen to train companies new to aircraft work. The T-33 and T-36 orders (initially 576 of the first and 250 to 300 of the second) have provided a volume of work that has led to much wider sub-contract ing, not only of details but of major components as well. For instance, T-33 wings are to be made by Ford at Wind sor, apart from fifteen sets coming from the U.S.A. to cover tooling delays; the rear fuselage by Roy Industries of Assumption, P.Q.; and the tail and flying controls by J. H. Connor of Hull, P.Q. These sub-con tracted parts will be complete with all systems and wiring ready for final assembly. It looks as if the 1,700,000 sq ft of factory and 75,500 sq ft of hangarage at Cartierville are going to be pretty well occupied, if not actually overflowing, for the next year or two. In fact there is even a prospect that the CanCar Cartierville Airport and the two Canadair factories. No. 1 Plant is in the foreground; the large flat roof on the left covers the one-time parking lot and the lower one beside it, at present a store, is soon to form part of the main shop. In the right background is the older No. 2 Plant.
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