Lockheed and WWII

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Njaco

The Pop-Tart Whisperer
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Feb 19, 2007
Fla-eee-dah!
I got this in an email....

Lockheed during W.W.II (unbelievable 1940's pictures). This is a version of special effects during the 1940's. I have never seen these pictures or knew that we had gone this far to protect ourselves. During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

The person I received this from said she got back an interesting story about someone's mother who worked at Lockheed, and she as a younger child, remembers all this. And to this day, it is the first pictures of it she's seen. Another person who lived in the area talked about as being a boy, watching it all be set up like a movie studio production.. They had fake houses, trees, etc. and moved parked cars around so it looked like a residential area from the skies overhead.

The first pic is before followed by the second pic as after...
 

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The movie set carpenters and props men were just down the road from Lockheed, and they were put to good use!
 
I'm not 100% sure but I think the building on the left in the last photo is building 304. The Connie was built there and later the Electra and P-3. i worked in that building from 1980 - 81.
 
So Toshiro is flying over in his 'Betty', or other type of Japanese bomber, "Where it go? Someone playing silly b*ggers, it was here yesterday!"
Great pics Chris. I've seen them before, but it's still amzing what can be done in the art of camouflage and concealement. The really clever part is the painting and texturing of the ramp and runway, in the foreground, to look like grass and so on, fantastic! Beats the cr*p out of us Brits painting tar lines across airfields to simulate hedgerows and trees!
 
Of all the things I thought I knew about WWII, this was new to me. Did a real good job at concealment, I think.
 
Cool photos Chris!

Found some pics of the Boeing plant in Seattle. Pretty good job of camo there as well.

Note the factory fresh "Forts" in the 2nd pic.

TO
 

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Great camo job! Kinda obvious if you know what/where to look for/at, but if seen from above while trying to dodge flak and a bunch of pissed-off crazy Americans taking potshots with hunting rifles, its gotta be effective!

Haven't seen those pics before, TO!
 

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