At HiTech Creations, makers of the flight sim game Aces High, we are all about World War 2. We devour each and every fact we can about that great war and that helps us to make our combat flight simulator the best on the market.
Today we are going to take a look at the aerospace industry in the United States during the war. The achievements by this industry between 1941-1945 were nothing short of amazing.
One of the advantages of the Unites States industrial complex is that it could work unimpeded by the threats of bombings. Once the industry kicked into full action mode, nothing could hold it back. During the war years, the aerospace industry became the largest in the world. In 1939 there were only 8,000 planes produced. It doubled in 1940, doubled again in 1941. By the end of 1945 there were 300,000 aircraft produced in the United States, and in fact more airplanes were produced than could be used. In one month, March 1944, 9,000 planes were produced. To say that the war awoke a giant would be an understatement.
By 1943 there were 81 production plants in the United States, making bodies, engines, and propellers. Two million men and women were working on the war industrial effort and the total value of the industry rose to $16 billion.
None of this happened by accident. Shortly after the Munich Conference in 1938, President Roosevelt started taking steps to put the industry in motion. Legislation was passed authorizing the new expenditures, and an increase in Armed Forces personnel was obvious.
Fisher Body, Douglas, Bell, and Boeing all saw new plants built and government contracts were awarded. The automobile industries became involved, switching over production facilities to meet the war needs. The largest of these production facilities was the Ford Willow Run plant in Detroit; by war’s end that one plant alone produced 5,476 B-24 bombers, and 92 million pounds of airframe weight, about half of what Germany did during the entire war. The sheer numbers were incredible as the United States completely invested time, effort and money into the war. Factories ran 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and the nation was a war-building machine.
Our World War 2 Flight Simulator brings all the action of World War II to your home computer. Try our free download and find out for yourself what all the excitement is about.
