Full Description
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is the ultimate look at the B-17's iconic stablemate from its origins on the drawing board to its emergence as America's preeminent blue-collar bomber. It chronicles the life of aviation legend Reuben Fleet, founder of Consolidated Aircraft, alongside the design evolution of one of his greatest creations. Some 19,000 Liberators were built between 1940 and 1945, primarily at Ford and Consolidated in the United States, and the aircraft remains the most mass-produced bomber in history. Drawing on the document and photo collections at the National Museum of the USAF, the Pima Air & Space Museum, the archives of Consolidated Aircraft and the Ford Motor Company, and his own immense collection of published and unpublished material, author Bill Wolf has produced the last word on the design, development, and manufacture of the ever-popular B-24.
Contents
Preface; Acknowledgments; Foreword; Part I: Reuben Fleet, Consolidated Aircraft, and the B-24 Liberator; 1 Introduction; 2 Reuben Fleet: The Early Years; 3 Fleet in the Service of His Country; 4 Fleet Becomes an Aircraft Builder; 5 The San Diego Plant Goes into Production; 6 David Davis and the Davis Wing; 7 Consolidated Model; 8 Consolidated Pre-XB-24 Four-Engined Bomber Proposals; 9 Consolidated Model 32/XB-24: B-24 Precursor; 10 Consolidated Heads toward B-24 Production; 11 Consolidated Confronts the West Coast Labor Unions; 12 Consolidated Merges with Vultee; 13 Epilog: Reuben Fleet After the Merger; Part II: Liberator Production Pool, Committee, and Manufacturer Contracts; 1 Liberator Production Pool; 2 B-24 Committee; 3 B-24 and Knock-Down Kit Contracts; Part III: Consolidated San Diego and Fort Worth B-24 Plants; Section 1: Consolidated San Diego; 1 Developing the San Diego Facility; 2 The San Diego Plant; 3 The San Diego Consolidated Labor Force; 4 Building the Liberator; 5 Feeder Shop Plan and Subcontracting; 6 Government-Furnished Equipment and Spare Parts; 7 Consolidated Assembly Line; 8 Consolidated San Diego: Summary and Conclusion; Section 2: Consolidated Fort Worth B-24 Plant; 1 Fort Worth's Aviation Heritage; 2 Enter Reuben Fleet; 3 The Consolidated Fort Worth Plant; 4 Fort Worth B-24 Knock-Down Assembly and Production; 5 B-24 Manufacture is Terminated and B-32 Production Begun; 6 Consolidated Fort Worth Plant Post-War to Present; Part IV: The Magnificent Ford Willow Run Plant; 1 Henry Ford and Automobile Mass Production; 2 The Trimotor Tin Goose: Ford's First Aircraft Manufacturing Endeavor; 3 The Auto Industry Begins Aircraft Manufacture; 4 Ford and Charles Sorensen Enter the U.S. Air Defense Program; 5 The Willow Run Factory is Conceived; 6 Plant Construction; 7 The Plant; 8 Mass Producing the B-24; 9 The Willow Run Workforce; 10 Production at Willow Run; 11 Ford Implements the Plan; 12 Engineering at Willow Run; 13 Raw Materials and Purchased Parts; 14 Subcontracting: Other Ford Plants and Outside Sub-Contractors; 15 Spare Parts; 16 Government-Furnished Equipment (GFE); 17 Inspection and Government Control; 18 Rate of Production Acceleration; 19 Willow Run Crises; 20 Period of Rapid Production Acceleration; 21 The Passing of Edsel Ford and Its Aftermath; 22 The Fabled Willow Run Production Line; 23 The Center Wing Section: The Essence of Liberator Manufacture; 24 Knock-Down (KD) Kit Production and Transport; 25 Was "Willit Run" a Success?; 26 Willow Run Post-War; Part V: North American Dallas Plant; 1 Planning and Building the Dallas Plant; 2 NAA Builds Plant B for B-24 Production; 3 Assembling KD and Scratch B-24s; 4 NAA Dallas B-24 Production and Costs; 5 NAA Dallas Plant Epilog; Part VI: Douglas Tulsa Plant; 1 Planning and Building the Tulsa Plant; 2 Assembling B-24s; Bibliography; Index.
