Mechanized P-38 line at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Description:
Bird's-eye view of mechanized assembly line for the P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Label on back: "Overall view of Lockheed's new mechanized P-38 line. Moving continuously, slowly, yet as surely as the hands of a watch, these three mechanized conveyor lines at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation more than double the daily output of the old assembly line. The P-38 Lightning fighters come down the line at the right, are shunted over to the middle line where they grow their wings and engines and then move backwards to the far end of the huge Final Assembly Hangar. Then they are shoved over to the third line at the left and for a third time move the length of the hangar, this time to go out the door and into a nearby paint hangar where they are camouflaged. Working exactly as an automobile assembly line, this mechanized line at Lockheed is notable not only because it is the first continuously moving final assembly line for combat aircraft in the West, but it also does what many experts said couldn't be done -- it puts the highly compact, twin-boomed, twin-engine Lightning on a full production basis. The room shown here was completely emptied of airplanes, which meanwhile were completed on an impromptu outdoor line, and in eight days, the new mobile line was set up ready to receive its new quota of airplanes." Stamped on back: "Approved for publication by War Department, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation." Handwritten on back: "Aircraft--Bombers (Parts & assembly)."
