FIRST OF MANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 May 1942, Page 3

FIRST OF MANY

NEW AMERICAN BOMBERS

WORLD’S BIGGEST FACTORY IN PRODUCTION.

ENTERPRISE AT WILLOW RUN

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) DETROIT, May 21.

The first Ford bomber today rolled off the half-mile assembly line of the vast new Willow Run plant. The new plane, which is technically called the 8.24 E., weighs 30 tons, is powered by four Pratt-Whitney 1250-horsepower motors, and has a cruising range of 3000 miles and a speed of 300 miles an hour. It carries four tons of bombs. A Ford official revealed that it is expected that the new factory will reach the production of a bomber every hour, with the workers doing three eighthour shifts, when a high-speed turnout is attained.

An example of the factory’s amazing efficiency is a huge milling machine, which performs 11 operations simultaneously, reducing the time taken to construct a centre-wing structure from several days to a fraction of an hour.

This bomber plant is claimed to be the largest factory of its kind in the world. It is built on a vast site where an experimental soya bean garden flourished in 1941. The employees, it was stated recently, will. number 110,000 when peak production is reached, possibly before the end of this year. The cost of the building and equipment is estimated at 60,000,000 dollars. The adjoining airport is reported to be the largest in the world jtaking up 720 acres, with seven runways, each over a mile long.