Boeing Played a Key Role in Winning World War II
During World War II, Boeing’s factories produced a staggering number of aircraft, ranging from B-17 Flying Fortress bombers to P-51 Mustang fighters. Thousands of men and women on the homefront kept the assembly lines humming day and night.
These B-29 noses will soon be attached to fuselages at Boeing’s plant in Wichita, KS.
Boeing, Douglas, McDonnell and North American Aviation employed thousands of women during World War II.
This 1944 ad from Douglas Aircraft touted the company’s war effort. It claimed that the C-54 Skymaster cargo planes used by the U.S. Army Air Force often “flew in the men and material that so often have turned the tide of battle.”
Boeing’s main factory in Seattle was covered with camouflage to guard against possible enemy attack. This fake neighborhood contained 53 homes, 24 garages, a gas station and three greenhouses.
Douglas employees at its Long Beach, CA, plant prepare engines on a subassembly line.
Between 1942 and 1945, Douglas assembled 29,385 airplanes at six factories. This plant in Tulsa, OK, massproduced B-24 bombers.
North American Aviation engineers used process flow charts to boost productivity of the P-51 Mustang.
One of the unsung heroes of World War II was “Rosie the Riveter,” a name proudly adopted by women who worked in aircraft factories to help build the “arsenal of democracy.” These women at Douglas Aircraft are riveting a leading edge subassembly.
Assemblers rivet the tail fuselage of a B-17 at the Douglas plant in Long Beach, CA.
Women rivet a wing section of a B-29 bomber atBoeing’s Renton, WA, factory.
By the summer of 1944, Boeing’s Renton, WA, factory was producing more than 50 B-29 Superfortress bombers a month.
Aircraft production during World War II was a staggering logistical challenge that required unprecedented plant floor organization
Boeing assembled almost 7,000 B-17 Flying Fortresses in Seattle. Douglas also built several thousand copies of the bomber at its factories in Southern California
Wiring harness assembly was a critical part of B-17 bomber production.
This patriotic 1942 ad from North American Aviation saluted the U.S. Navy.
This 1943 McDonnell Aircraft ad explained how “70 percent of the work is spread among 50 subcontractors in 8 neighboring states.”