fastmongrel
1st Sergeant
I am not saying the USAAF shouldn't have had so many aircraft, just fewer B 24 s and more of ssomething else. I believe a lot of B 24 s ended up flying cargo and passengers, why not build more C54s.
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Getting to the original question at hand. Is there any information on the quality as a whole, of the aircraft produced by sub-contracted companies. I know Goodyear was very good with the Corsair. I have heard the problems with Brewster. I guess what I am asking, was it more common that the sub-contracted aircraft were not as good, or just as good, as the primary builder?
I am not saying the USAAF shouldn't have had so many aircraft, just fewer B 24 s and more of ssomething else. I believe a lot of B 24 s ended up flying cargo and passengers, why not build more C54s.
"... Cool looking thing but, twin engined??"
Side-by-side V/8's, Lucky .... for long fast runs .... Route 66 maybe.
MM
I think the answer is that you can't make a blanket statement. Some sub-contractors (or licence manufacturers) may have been very good, Few complaints about Eastern Aircraft or Goodyear? Vega, a division of Lockheed built 2750 B-17s, Douglas built over 3000.
Some plants, like Brewster, may have had trouble. But each plant had government inspectors at certain stages of production and each plane had to be test flown before acceptance. Most (if not all) contracts had penalties for overweight and/or sub performing aircraft even if performance was within a few percent. If performance was off by too much the plane had to be reworked and flown again. Not to take anything away from the men who flew and fought in these aircraft but there was (and is) a lot of "hanger talk" that is not always true. Some veterans only know their own experience with a small number of aircraft and what they were "told" over coffee (or beer) from other units. Using that information to judge thousands of aircraft needs a lot of sifting and backing up.
I would say that every factory that turned out several thousand aircraft produced a lemon or two and just like with cars where one "bad" car may sour a person on a brand (company) for life some of these veterans did experience a "bad" aircraft.
Somewhat related. 30 years ago, a friend of my fathers told me a story. He was a SeaBee in WWII. He said they used to drag race jeeps on the air strips they constructed and the Ford built jeeps were usually faster. I don't know why, or what if anything was different. And again, that is one mans story from memories.
You can see some minor differences in body panels in early MB and GPW Jeeps, but later war Jeeps are hard to tell apart. Ford stamped a small F on every bolt, and Willys stamped Willys on some body parts. But all the mechanical parts were interchangable, they all used the Willys Go-Devil engine and Warner T-84 transmission. The design didn't belong to Willys, the origional vehicles were made by American Bantam. But production was awarded to Willys and Ford because Bantam didn't have enough production capacity.I suspect that the Willys MB and Ford GPW weren't identical vehicles.
Even though Ford was building them under license, I doubt they were license producing Willy's engines (or whoever Willys bought them from.)
I suspect the same was true for the other various motor vehicles, i.e., trucks.
Haven't heard any complaints about Packard-built Merlins.
OK, I assume Ford was supplied with the engines and transmissions (and other assorted components) manufactured by others.
Just trying to come up with why the Fords may have been better drag racers
Did the USAAF need all those B 24s even by late 43 they must have begun to wonder what to do with them. I know they often became transports but I bet a lot of the Ford aircraft ended up sitting on a field doing not much. With 20/20 hindsight build half as many B24s and half as many more B 17s.
It was a licensed built Willys engine, That's what the W is in the GPW stood for, Willys. The Willys engine was a 134 ci engine, the Fordson tractors of that era had a 200 ci engine, just a continuation of the Ford model A and B engine.I may be wrong but I believe the Ford built Jeeps used the four cylinder engine from Fords tractors. I have heard this from several individuals who have restored them but I don't know if it is true. Just going by what I have been told.