B-17 assembly line, 1944
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- This is the one I was telling you about, fascinating!
The dynamics of the assembly line lead me to believe that If OSHA was the law back then, WWII would have lasted several years longer... :) This clip was cut from the 1944 film "An American Romance" with Brian Donlevy.
![Video from the Past [31] - Building a Bomber (1941)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/s-WvTJZ1_G4/mqdefault.jpg)
Dad worked for Locheed Burbank after graduating from college with Aeronautical Engineering degree. First on P-38s, then on B-17s when Locheed got contract to build B-17s. He was working his way through Locheeds apprentice program as a QA inspector at unboxing of the engines. He took scrap wood from engine crates and made static model of the B-17. He got drafted the wouldn't let him take model out of plant for security reasons. When war ended, they let a good friend take it home. Mid fifties we went to LA, dad stopped to see old friend. He gave dad back his B-17 model, ten plus years later.
Amazing story, what happened to the wooden model afterwards? Do u still have it?
@@Ramzi1944 After many years in a closet, the glue he used just gave up. It fell apart and dad tossed it. Replaced it with a plastic model the same size. What kept it at Locheed was the addition of the chin turret, on the G model Fortress.
Sweet story
Wonderful story. Thanks for posting it here.
@dougtaylor7724 glad you liked it.
10th grade in 1961 I had a teacher who had worked as a young man in the parts room of a plant producing B-17s. He impressed all of us when he said he still could call out all 117 parts of a B-17 tail wheel assembly. My dad survived the war after the B-17 he was piloting was shot down on 10/07/44 near Merseburg. He spent eight months in Stalag Luft 1, was liberated by the Russians and then flown back to England in another of his unit's B-17s. I flew in the EAA's 'Aluminum Overcast' B-17 in 2015. It seemed very familiar and comfortable.
Absolutely amazing! Colorized made it look like it was done last week! I knew women were involved in the manufacturing of wartime equipment, but this showed how much. They weren't just riveting things together. Seemed like for every 1 man there were 4 women. Thank you, women for all your service in the effort to support the American way!
Pretty sure this is original color film.
Rosie the riveter. My grandma was one.
a target rich environment
@@procrastinator41 ---I agree. It looks too good and varied for colorized film. Surprising to see it. It must have been well received in the movie theaters back then.
I believe it is filmed in color. Color film did exist then. It was just very expensive. Even Hitler had private films of himself in color
The power assisted hand tools accelerated the whole production, it is a secret weapon never showed up in the front line.
WW2 didn't have modern electronics, but their equipment was nevertheless sophisticated and extremely complex, both to build and operate. Most of those skills are now lost.
Yes to think this war hadn't been planned out in detail many years probably decades in advance is ludicrous. We need to stop playing into the hands of bankers and the destroyers of the Old World cities.
What, you have to use your hands? That's for a baby.
Back to the future line but it's almost reality now
Their manufacturing equipment was often based on hydraulic and pneumatic systems and no, it hasn't been completely lost to history.
@@tinman3586 The comment was referring to the skills, not the techniques. Somehow, even the techniques are lost as well, once electronics and servomotors are more used than pneumatic and hydraulic systems in assembly lines nowadays. New engineers are more used with PLCs than Pascal's principle
There is almost no skill involved in using a pneumatic rivet gun. That's why they were used. Quick and easy compared to bolts or welding.
This is awe-inspiring....love seeing all the men and women giving it their all
Note few people today could fill those jobs due to size!
I get the sense that they were giving it their all because they knew they were in front of the camera....
@@tc556guy no way haha. I know everyone is jaded today, but the US war machine during WW2 was legit, and it was due to the patriotic efforts of citizens like these. The Axis powers had no chance once US manufacturing got involved in the war.
Thanks for sharing that Gary. I recently retired from Boeing after 35 years.
I'd be curious what building this was filmed in. As a machinist I worked in the "old" B29 building briefly many years ago. Everyone working in that huge building knew it's history and there was a distinct feeling one got just being in it. Of the many other large factory buildings I've been in over the years never felt that any other place.
I worked for Boeing Flight Test in the large hanger at Boeing Field in Seattle back in the early 80s. I wonder if that could be one.
Absolutely fascinating video by the way. Thanks Gary.
4735 E marginal way was probably the building. I worked there in the late 1980’s early 90’s and there were still large markings on the floor indicating the various assembly and joining stations. Looking now, most of that building is gone. However there is still the dock and maybe crane that they used to lift the aircraft on to the Barge for floating to the actual field.
Thanks@@jvc6489
I knew of a veteran Luftwaffe flak antiaircraft officer, now deceased, who commanded the 88 mm and 105 mm flak batteries that fired at the B-17s in WW II. He said he saw the huge endless armadas of about 100 or more B-17s flying over Germany daily and said, “Where the hell did the Americans get all these planes?”
The women built them.
Raw materials from mines transported to foundries refined into components taken to assembly plants
Then flown by crews to airfields near Germany
The Americans seem a little too eager to bomb Germany out of existence
People too susceptible to propaganda
The Willow Run factory turned out a B-24 Liberator every 56 minutes.
No safety gear worn by anyone, pure heroes.
Exactly what I was thinking. Imagine driving rivets for 10-12 days 5+ days a week and no ear protection. No wonder all my grandparents couldn’t hear squat.
Safety gear ? What language is that ?
Safety wasn’t invented yet
👍👍👍👍👍
Money spent on safety gear is money that isn't being spent dropping bombs on Nazi Germany.
The thing that crosses my mind is in the frantic effort to get these aircraft ready and in good time that everything has to be absolutely accurate no room for the slightest error. I admire these women and men. Their skills were second to none. I often visit the Imperial War museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire and looking at these beautiful aircraft fills me with admiration. I don't know if this was originally a colour film or not but in watching it seems like it was only made recently.
Being able to see inside of the wings gives you a much better understanding of how the B17 was so rugged. It was a very sturdy airframe ✈️
The Greatest Generation. The incredible men and women who built these remarkable machines were every bit war heroes! This great video is a fitting tribute. Thank you!!!
Now you have the millennials and Gen Z which are the useless generations
@@user-hh2ky3br3x Actually, there was nothing different about them. They were regular Americans, no more patriotic or selfless before the war. If called upon to fight for their country, Millennials and Gen Z Americans wound answer the call. And they do, every single day. Right now on every base, and in every branch of service, people you call useless are defending your freedom.
@@user-hh2ky3br3xcurrent generation cant even tell their gender 😂
Just blown away by the coordination the determination the strength of the people in this film just shows you why we need to keep what we have in this country and people like that happy as a security defense resource at the minimum!
People have too much stuff and junk today and aren't even close to happy. These people here actually had common beliefs, values and morals and weren't corrupt soulless, mindless consumers with no real shared community.
@@s0nnyburnett you're the man Sonny! I'm almost 57 and I think I'm one of the last generations that had some morals installed? You can't spank your child, they can't believe in anything but the corporate state & their media brainwashing, no God so this is what we get people killed on Saturday? It's so true what you said about the factory workers. My dad was in World War II & there was a direction in this country at that time even though I wasn't there you could feel it in the movie reels of that era that's why we were victorious in World War II now it's so divided thanks to corporate too many of our enemies are on our soil that's one of the problems unfortunately there's many others! :(
Lost skills that we desperately need back
Nothing I've seen in videos of robot assembly lines has been as impressive as the focused, determined effort displayed by these people - my parents for all intents and purposes.
An interesting bit of video. Obviously a part of some larger film, I wish the original had been credited so I could go find it and watch it.
Being a little familiar with both film making and aircraft construction, I have to say that a lot of this was staged for the camera. There is a scene with a girl (what they called them back then) blasting away with a rivet gun and nobody bucking the rivet. That doesn't work, she was just there to make the scene look busy. There are a number of other instances of things like that.
Also, as the clip progresses, the camera was more and more "undercranked". This means that the film was playing back faster than the actual action, again making things look much more urgent and exciting than they really were.
This really wasn't cheating, a lot of people watching this in 1944 would have recognized what was going on. I'm a little worried that it seems that people these days don't seem to recognize these visual tricks and think that this film is a complete representation of reality. While it is reality that we cranked out airplanes really fast back then, it wasn't quite this fast and seemingly haphazard.
While OSHA wasn't around back then, the plant safety men were, and they would help you do it safer or show you the right way to do it, or fire your ass out the door if you were a dangerous jackass that was likely injure others. Most of what was shown here was perfectly safe, when performed at normal speed and without too many people crowding into the shot.
This clip was cut from a 1944 movie, "An American Romance".
Of coarse it was, do you think we are all stupid? Obvious they are going to make it exciting for the film footage - best propaganda ever! But who cares, it was a great watch.
Absolutely mindboggling ! The tragic side of course is the cost in human lives . So many highly trained personnal died in their duty to allow us the freedom we all , hopefully , enjoy !
Yeah now days that freedom was wiped.
Welcome to the modern era where you are monitored and forced to pay taxes to armies that massacre civilians and army of young man forced to be sent to meat grinders.
With Russia ruining the Helsinki peace agreement for their selfish needs.. hope is pretty low.
The chess table is set, we are waiting on who will move next.
War is coming. Prepare your families.
freedom to destroy other countries?
These planes were designed to destroy the Old World cities. That was why the war was started. Totally unnecessary they had almost no effect on war logistics.
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that each year between 1942 and 1945 there were some two million disabling or deadly industrial accidents, a total of more than six million. More than 75,000 Americans died or became permanently and totally disabled in industry during the war."
If these brave men could have glimpsed into the future and seen the attack on Western civilization and the propaganda machine turned against their people, they wouldn't have shown up. Ultimately, they were fighting for communism, but most didn't understand it at the time.
Holy cow! This is the best video ever.. 1944 seems like yesterday
Those 2 big beautiful oceans sure came in handy.
Neat stuff! They were really cranking those late model G versions out!
Good to see capitalism was going strong then as it is today, You know building cheap ass planes essentially flying frame with no armor so our soldiers could get shot to pieces. A soldiers life was nothing compared to the cost of a cheaper bomber, yes i know fuel was an issue to but still look at it. building it out of wood would have offered more protection. lol.
@@StarDark4 ...you do know that bombers have little to no armor because it needed it to extra capacity for you know...bombs? And capitalism can only do this? You should see Communist USSR, they are epitome of Mass production to lowest standard... whatever standard that is.
@@StarDark4 A bomber had to carry the fuel, bombs, and protective weaponry to get it to the target and back and that was severely limited by the engines we had available at the time these were built. Look at how much larger the B-29 became - and how much more engine they required - and the subsequent bombers after that. Much more power and much much larger machines - the men that flew ANY of the aircraft on either side were lucky to have survived the war. To say that we did not protect our boys in the air is false, however, as they were given flak jackets and armored positions in the aircraft - not all encompassing - but they were afforded as much protection as possible to still allow the bird to fly within its limitations.
@@toesuf94 I get it. I mean the engines did have limitations and technology back then was limited but improving every year.
It's just I don't enjoy seeing young men throw their lives away for political ambitions in droves. I always re watch old battles and wars and try to figure out if their was a better way to do thing or did the people at the top just not care enough to try.
@@StarDark4 the b17s were no slouch of a design, a bunch of them had holes riddled in the after missions, sometimes even entire parts and they still flew back home
I work in an aircraft manufacturing plant and it isn't much different now.The building I work in was used in WW2 for building B29's.
Pretty amazing what America can do when they cooperate with each other compaired to now
What's different? It's pretty obvious.
In today’s America we will have illegal immigrants doing the job because our youth are to lazy. Fat and comfortable.
Back then we ALL had a serious problem with both communists and fascists. Today we're so politically divided that one side calls the other communist, and they call the other side fascists.
Всегда восхищаюсь когда вижу на что способны люди когда объединяются.
так Запад всегда так работал, там не надо людей сгонять штыками с идеями о свободе.
У нас тоже не надо никого сгонять штыками. Люди с удовольствием работают вместе, когда у них есть возможность заниматься полезным делом и видеть результат своего труда, чувствовать себя нужными. Видеоролик прекрасен, жаль только что вся эта красота предназначена для убийства людей.
@@user-wc7ol2eq4h сказки не рассказывайте про "у нас то же"...у нас были "черные субботы" и прочие требования партии, а если взять время когда весть мир боролся с мировым злом в 20 веке, "у вас" отправляли в ГУЛАГ за опоздание на работу..."...веселится и ликует весь народ!"
Полезное дело было в Союзе это дачу благоустраивать наворованным материалом, но ни как создавать продукт для мировой экономики и не создали по сей день кроме "красоты" для убийства людей.
Interesting to notice that the interior components of the wings were coated with primer, even knowing that the aircraft’s useful life was not very long.
AMAZING! As a B-17 pilot (current) it is an honor in flying such a plane...as I refer too: "THE FOUR FANS OF FREEDOM)
Current??? Which plane?
@@TeamPaulie2520 2 well...none, right now, was the Memphis Belle, movie Airplane and EAA Overcast...right now Overcast has a cracked wing spar..
Production such as that will never be duplicated on such a scale.
They make it look so easy. They made B-24 bombers so fast that as the modifications came down from engineering they had to wait until the aircraft were flown to modification centers for changes. Many hundreds of aircraft in late 1944 into early 1945 were flown directly to storage facilities to wait until needed. Vultee was still building the A-31 Vengeance just to keep their workers intact because if the B-29 proved a failure, Vultee would switch over to B-32 Dominator component production. The A-37 dive bombers all went straight to the bone yard with just enough fuel to get there. Cleaning up the mess after the war was epic.
Currently work in one of the original buildings that built these B-17's and later the B-29's.
I can see old archived photos of the inside and how planes were line up, the steel columns, which are still there, and the scalloped roof line which used to have windows facing north for more natural light.
Not sure why they weren't facing south though? Maybe too much glare...
Nice! They staged and under-cranked at least some of it, but it's still an enjoyable trip back in time where we could be watching our own parents or grandparents working in the war effort. I know they made B-17s at Boeing in Seattle, Douglas in Long Beach and Vega in Burbank. Does anyone know where this was filmed?
If you change the playback speed to 50% in settings you see the true speed of the workers.
The term "Total war " is lost on us. We are enjoying the freedom that they bought for us. What can you do to pay it forward?
Go to prison for saying the N word
Freedom's Americans at the time were free, some more than others, but still The Germans had no interest in wasting time and money assaulting the U.S. nobody does it would be impossible and a waste of resources.
Drain the phkn swamp that's how!!!
Thats the thing tho. America itself has never seen “total war” so that statement in and of itself is a fallacy. The closest america has seen was the civil war. Which none of us were around to experience anyway
Brilliant piece of film footage, thank you! 🇦🇺❤️
Great editing, the video reveals swift aircraft assembly comparable to modern automobile assembly lines. Of course producing vast quantities of military aircraft would lead to many assembly shortcuts and less emphasis on worker safety in an atmosphere of wartime. Even if OSHA existed back in WWII they probably would've looked the other way as they often do today when military contracts are at stake.
The video is sped up.
@@lukecollins7965 Most any documentary video of a complex and time consuming assembly process will benefit from speeding up the frame rate so that the viewer doesn't feel like they're watching paint dry. Careful editing also contributes to the illusion of a swift assembly. I think even children can tell the difference between a normal observable pace and a sped up film. That's why silent films projected at 24 fames per second are often humorous looking because they were filmed at 18 frames/ second, the sped up pace of action is fairly noticeable.
Osha builds safe thermonuclear bombs for safety first boeing now 😉. And they used cgi boeing aircraft . Its all nice and safe now .
It is exciting to see the ability of a people with work to overcome obstacles. Your people are an example to be followed. 👍
What a gem. I've seen a lot of this sort of thing but not this one. It'll be exremely useful for my own B17f project. Many Thanks for posting.
All those women saved our butt riveting all those planes together!! Wonder how many of them lost their heating listening to those rivet guns all day and night?
What a fast production! This film is unique.
Wonderful footage showing America at it's best: working with pride....
I watched this hoping to catch a glimpse of my Uncle Donald. As a teen in Sumner, Washington, he was too young to serve so he dropped out of school and went to Boeing's Renton plant, building B-17 Flying Fortresses for the duration of the war. Afterwards, he finished school and went back to work at Boeing, retiring as an engineer in the jetliner division. The 767 was the last plane he worked on.
uncle must have a lotta stories
@@putnamehere3803 He did. He passed away 20 years ago.
This was totally cool to watch. I built models of the B-17 as a kid. The Memphis Belle being one them. 👍
Amazing... I wish it was a full video👍
A beautiful aircraft! So sad there are so few left.
Man that is awesome. I've never seen this video before.
Thanks for posting it.
my dad told us kids growing up that after Peral Harbor it seemed like it was over night that America was building everything for the war effort, but he said it took time to get there
Amazing! I can see some safety features were missing but it's overall a great manufacturing process!
That was some great footage. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful color and sound..love it
And we still use damn rivets to join those plates. Ships discontinued rivets way back but planes still has them.
Amazed at the quality here!! Wartime, Women were RIGHT in the center!
Now THAT"S girl power!!! So impressive. People just did what they had to without complaint.
FROM BRAZIL
Geração maravilhosa.
Tudo tão orquestrado.
Obrigado
my Grandma was a Rosie the Riveter making B-17s at Lockheed during WWII. yes Lockheed in Burbank. I believe the bomber plant was across the runway on the Vineland St. side, which then became the Sid and Marty Krofft sound stages in the 70s.
The color looks so good it looks as if it was filmed in color, not colorized. But I could be wrong, tho if it has been colorized it's the best job I ever saw. Great video!
David, that clip was from the tail end of the 1944 movie "An American Romance", don't know whether the color was enhanced or?
The colour is original they only fooled us with black and white in the early days. The Old World cinemas in our cities were for wide aspect ratio HD film before 1800. Photography and film is thousands of years old.
@2:32 reminded me watching Star Wars in 1980s. It’s amazed to see colorized vintage film.
Absolutely awesome my father flew B26 after their worst mission half of their planes were lost on their flight over Germany his plane was so damaged it was scrapped 2 days later they had a new plane ready he thought that thoseen building planes were the true heroes of the war
No wonder our grandparents were hard of hearing. Between the M1 Garand and riveting airframes, it's a wonder they could hear at all.
My father-in-law was in the artillery in Korea, and couldn't hear a damn thing I said. Ever.
By 1944 this symphony in sheet metal was totally obsolete. B-29's from the same Company were already flying missions.
Absolutely amazing! They don’t call me the greatest generation ever for nothing! The tenacity, true spirit and grit helped save the world from pure evil! 🇺🇸
I think my great grandmother worked in a factory like this.
Wow, looks like it was just filmed yesterday.
Great footage, with an incredible soundtrack as well
Nothing better than the sound of a rivet gun
Todas las piesas calzan..increible el nivel se seguridad en el trabajo..CUANDO VEREMOS LA SERIE MASTER OF THE AIR...delos heroes del aviones???
Excelente vídeo histórico mostrando um lado da segunda guerra pouco visto...parabéns!
Adoro quando esse tipo de vídeo aparece na minha tela ☺️
All that riveting and not a set of ear defenders in sight! :-)
Sadly, America could never again get on a war foot like they did back in the 1940's.....They were the Greatest Generation!
Sure would be nice if they could turn out a few hundred now
You would have to rebuild all industry from the 1940s to get an exact duplicate. Think of things like radio tubes and ball bearings would be needed to be made the same way.
Incredible how complex that process was.
not often they show the part being made. More times just the final assembly How many separate operations were there in making all the parts sub assemblies and final assembly. Had to be over 1,000,000 separate steps , bending metal , making rivets, inspections , how many coats of primer and paint etc............ I used to work for P&W some parts had a list of about 75 operations including deburring edges and making clamping surfaces to be cut off later Making a bolt would be a few operations including deburring and heat treating
@@harrybriscoe7948 No doubt, what we saw was just the surface level. The engines themselves were produced by a very complex process from parts manufactured in many different factories, that's just one subassembly. Whoever over sees all that must be one smart and knowledgeable person.
Amazing how times change,hard work and efficiency.
Today,probably 5 workers and 20 bosses!
The quality is impressive! Looks like it was filmed just recently.
And no hard hats, high vis vests, steel toes, or eyewear and they got it done with a smile and a sense of pride.
But also no protection of the ears
Amazing watching these B17's being built so fast!
At the end of the conflict contracts were fullfilled and many aircraft like these went straight to storage/scrapyard.
This needs more views
And not one cell phone in sight. Everyone is just living in the moment!
I wonder if at least one of the B-17s assembled in this footage still exists today.
Same
In 1944 there were 11 planes built per hour only in USA
impressive...it looks as if it was filmed yesterday...
I like how they are playing A10 with the rivet gun
Those people are awesome….I wish I could go back to that era….😢
The Greatest Generation for sure. Awesome people!
Wow! And in color!
Then in the spring of 1945 when Germany surrenders all these production lines go silent and all material is scarped. A total shame. What a waste of workmanship.......
Wow! what a great video!
Never knew that Ford played such a major role in WWII aircraft construction efforts.
Packard made plane engines
Wow excited that this will start again
No time or motion wasted. Make German production processes look downright archaic.
It's Unbelievable how spoiled WE are. These people have No safety equipment or procedures. No helmets, Hairnets or Head coverings, no work gloves, no boots, no goggles, no safety clothing (tight fitting) they are just wearing street clothes , moving Heavy objects above the workers heads without moving them out of the way First, assembly line moving at an Accelerated and Dangerous Rate ( taking into account the film is sped up). Our Grandparents were Much Tougher than we could ever hope to be. GOD Bless them.
In 1942 (first year of war for USA) there were more casualties from industrial accidents than on the battlefield.
How this has less than 50k views in 4 years is beyond me...
All those wonderful "Rosie the rivetors"
The men worked double shifts building airplanes all day and laying pipe all night.
Thank you for creating this film now make one about American and Russian shuttles
incredible video. very impressive
Excelente mano de obra femenina, mi respeto a todos ellas que hicieron posible, Loor a todas ellas.
The B17 is Glamorous and all, but the B24 Liberator was the Actual workhorse , the B24 in terms of production way out produced to B17.
the b24 was a multi role aircraft the b17 was not you cant compare them to each other like that when one was used for vastly different roles in many cases
Amazing work ethic. All that activity and noise, no ear or eye protection. We’ve come a long
The plane of planes. This plane has always fasinated me.
To Me That B 17 Was One Beautiful Plane 😍
Превосходное качество материалов и высокий уровень сборки на то время.
Wonderful video - thank you.
I hope Cessna and Piper are watching this. Love it.