Ford's Willow Run Secret: How B-24 Bombers Were Built in 63 Minutes—Modern Aircraft Take 6+ Years скачать в хорошем качестве

Ford's Willow Run Secret: How B-24 Bombers Were Built in 63 Minutes—Modern Aircraft Take 6+ Years

Ford's Willow Run Secret: How B-24 Bombers Were Built in 63 Minutes—Modern Aircraft Take 6+ Years Charles Sorensen's revolutionary idea to break down the massive 450,000-part B-24 Liberator into sub-assemblies and move them on automotive-style production lines created the world's most efficient aircraft factory. Ford's Willow Run plant had dual parallel assembly lines over a mile long with massive turntables that rotated entire aircraft 90 degrees to fit the L-shaped building. The plant produced one complete bomber every 63 minutes at peak production, with 8,685 B-24s built during WWII. Ford engineers created 20,000 detailed blueprints from Consolidated's incomplete 7,500 drawings and designed 1,600 custom machine tools and 11,000 fixtures for precision manufacturing. Modern aircraft like the F-35 take 6-10 years from order to delivery due to complex electronics, certification requirements, and supply chain complications that didn't exist in the streamlined wartime production system