WWII Aircraft Corporations...

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Zipper730

Chief Master Sergeant
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Nov 9, 2015
...were the most overburdened during the war?

I know Curtiss seemed to be producing everything under the sun for both the USAAF and USN, Grumman seemed pushed near the limit working for the USN.

I'm curious how Martin, McDonnell, Northrop, Republic, and Ryan were doing?

BTW: Was Ryan blackballed from the USAAF?
 
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Well, you have to consider how big some of the companies were in 1939-41.

Republic built thousands (over 10,000) P-47s during the war but had built under 100 planes total before getting the contract for the P-43.
Ryan had built trainers.

and while they went on to build just over 1000 of the radial engine version for the government (hardly blackballed) there is no reason to believe their design team or production facilities were suited to large all metal aircraft.

Martin built thousands of aircraft. almost 1600 Baltimores, the B-26 bombers, The PBM Mariner flying boats (almost 1700), The huge Martin Mars flying boat, and a number of prototypes of other types of aircraft (Martin Mauler?)

McDonnell had 15 employees in 1939. Getting any contracts for a new aircraft type instead of being a subcontractor was a major success.
 
Brewster built the SB2A "Buccaneer" and the F3A-1, which was a licensed F4U.

There were small companies like Hall Aluminum Aircraft Corporation, that built the PH-3 flying boat for the USCG - which was a 1920's design!

And these smaller, often overlooked companies:
Aeronca, Budd, Beechcraft, Cessna, Culver, Fairchild, Fisher, Fleetwings, Goodyear, Howard, Interstate, Naval Aircraft Company, Piper, Pratt-Reid, Ryan, Schweizer, Siskorsky, Stearman, Stinson, Spartan, Taylorcraft, Timm and Waco.
 
Related, I always found it interesting that Curtiss-Wright was the largest corporation in the USA at the end of the War, bigger than GM.
 
pinehilljoe said:
Related, I always found it interesting that Curtiss-Wright was the largest corporation in the USA at the end of the War, bigger than GM.
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Curtiss-Wright was one of the largest companies at the start of the war, too.

They had three divisions: Curtiss, which was making aircraft, Wright, which was making engines and then Curtiss-Wright, which was making propellors.
 
vikingBerserker said:
I believe Martin was also building B-24s or B-29s as well.
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The US government plant in Omaha, Nebraska, constructed for the production of B-26Cs, converted to B-29s in 1944.
Martin also built the Maryland.
Don't forget that the US auto industry, besides converting to build all sorts of military vehicles, was also heavily involved in aircraft and aircraft component production. Ford built Pratt & Whitney engines, B-24s and subassemblies for a wide variety of aircraft. Packard was building Merlins. Etc.
 
From A brief history of Chrysler military work

Chrysler and radar: SCR584 radar-guided anti-aircraft guns - delivered at 20% of the Army's (and GE's) estimated cost, in one trailer instead of seven, these radar-guided guns saved many soldiers' lives and, in one day, knocked down over 96% of the German rockets attacking London.

Bofors guns: Making a Swedish weapon far faster, cheaper, and better than the inventors couldhttps://www.allpar.com/history/military/bofors.html

B-29 Superfortress bomber: Chrysler redesigned the Wright Cyclone engine to make it more durable, cutting the cost of the engines in half while saving energy and metal. https://www.allpar.com/history/military/b-29.html
 
YF12A said:
And Studebaker was making R-1820's as well.
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So was Caterpillar. Their versions were the G-200 gas powered variant and the D-200 (RD-1820) diesel variant.

Zipper730 said:
Rockets or buzz-bombs? I thought the V-2 was damned-near unstoppable with the technology
Click to expand...
The V-1 - as the V-2 was supersonic on it's final run and wouldn't be stoppable with 1940's tech.
 
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