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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0394.PDF
, 391\FLIQI I 25 Mq 195! GATHERING MOMENTUM Inside Four Big American Aircraft Factories: Newest Types in the Making UNLIKE this country, America permits, as a matter of course,the publication of photographs showing the manufacture of her very latest types of military aircraft. It is therefore possible toshow scenes in the manufacture of a 190-ton jet bomber, a Mach 1.4 fighter, a supersonic carrier fighter and a versatiletactical or strategic transport. The great aircraft above is a Boe- ing B-52B Stratofortress, completed by a recent night shift at theSeattle factory (8i million square feet, nearly 40,000 employees). After passing through the pre-flight line (Flight, March 4th) andtesting at Larson A.F.B., 140 miles to the east, it will be delivered to the U.S.A.F. Strategic Air Command. Points of interest are theanti-flash paint to protect the crew from atomic explosions, the folded fin and the open doors of the bomb bay—the latter beingjust big enough for the most potent weapon yet devised by man. IN their 21 years of existence, North American Aviation, Inc.,have made more aircraft than any other company—over 50,000, in fact—and most of them were built in the Los Angeles factory(4m sq ft, 26,000 employees), a corner of which is seen below. By far the greatest production effort at Los Angeles is now devotedto the F-100A Super Sabre, and one end of one set of assembly lines is illustrated. The F-100 airframe incorporates severalhundred pounds of titanium alloy and a high proportion of the structure is integrally stiffened; North American have extensiveexperience of both techniques. The F-100 is propelled by a Pratt and Whitney J57-P-7 turbojet (14,500 lb thrust) which is insertedinto the fuselage from the rear before the latter is lowered by crane on to the wing. The tailored "docks" are prominent, andwith their aid it is possible to work at two levels at once.
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