The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsFord built 8 extremely complex B 24 Liberator bombers a DAY, ventilators
should be a snap
Ford's willow run factory built from scratch to make bombers, video shows how they are built
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)But, they gotta do that first and it doesnt happen overnight.
I do think they can do it as quickly as anyone else. And they could acquire a ventilator manufacturer, or key engineers and production people. Will be interesting to see how Ford, GM, etc., do it.
paleotn
(17,876 posts)...don't happen overnight and are expensive to pull off. Add to that the learning curve for folks not use to building ventilators. Needless to say, these are going some inefficiently produced and damn expensive ventilators. But...it's got to be done.
captain queeg
(10,083 posts)I saw a thing about building a new naval base, I believe it was Mare Island in SF. From scratch to operational in a matter of weeks.
paleotn
(17,876 posts)I've worked in mfg my entire career and still get a kick out of stuff like this. But...few if anyone are wearing safety glasses and hearing protection. Different world back then.
thucythucy
(8,037 posts)FDR, seeing that war was inevitable, started Lend Lease in 1941 in part to encourage American industry to begin shifting to war time production. Much of the planning for war mobilization was started in 1940. The massive deliveries of airplanes, Liberty ships, tanks, aircraft carriers, etc. etc. didn't start to flow until 1943. Nineteen forty-two was a year of shortages, frantic improvisation, and shoddy equipment (i.e. crappy torpedoes that were more often duds even when they hit the target). The campaign on Guadalcanal--the first significant American offensive of the war--was done on a logistical shoestring. The miracles of American production during WWII were years in the making. Not to mention, FDR's "brain trust" of experts from industry, academia, and government were all geniuses compared to the stunted mediocrities appointed by this "leader."
Had we a president with a tenth the acumen of FDR, we would have been gearing up for this in January, rather than just starting to make these plans at the end of March.
Yes, we'll eventually get to where we need to be. Sadly, many will have died beforehand, people that would have survived had we had a competent leader, and a halfway decent person at the top.
VMA131Marine
(4,135 posts)But each one took quite a bit longer than one day to build.
gladium et scutum
(806 posts)At full production, the Ford plant at Willow Run was turning out a B-24 liberator bomber each hour. That's 24 bombers a day.
ProfessorGAC
(64,827 posts)Per Wiki.
But, that was 2 years after conversion to making bomber parts, then bombers.
So, darned close to 24 per day.
Here's the link.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Run