The Last Fort Worth TX built B-24 ...

[Mark Allen M]

... but before that a few of the first built at the Consolidated-Vultee Plant in Fort Worth, Texas and a few events in between ...
source, www.texashistory.unt.edu

"CONSOLIDATED VULTEE AIRCRAFT CORPORATION. Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation was formed by a merger of Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, founded by Reuben H. Fleet in 1923 in Buffalo, New York, and Vultee Aircraft, a California airplane builder. In Texas it operated a mile-long facility, known locally as the Bomber Plant, built in 1942 on 563 acres on the west side of what is now Carswell Air Force Baseqv at Fort Worth. The company used the site to fulfill contracts for planes it had no room to build at its San Diego factory and produced more than 3,000 B-24s, as well as C-87 cargo planes there. The Fort Worth plant, one of five factories including ones at Tulsa, Willow Run (Michigan), Dallas, and San Diego, was later used for production of F-16 fighter planes. At one time the Fort Worth plant employed up to 38,000 workers, including women, many of whom came from small towns like Cleburne, Decatur, and Denton. The company became part of General Dynamics Corporation's Convair division in 1954. During the war the firm, which began making trainers and seaplanes and commercial passenger and cargo planes, produced more B-24 Liberator bombers and PBY Catalina patrol bombers than any other United States corporation."

Part 1

Last edited by Mark Allen M on Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Mark Allen M]

Part 2









Veteran B-24 Liberator, the "Blue Streak" with it's crew on a war bond visit to the Fort Worth Plant.

[Mark Allen M]

The last Fort Worth B-24 Built

[Invader26]

Great post. I'm interested in that I believe all RAAF B-24's came from there. They were delivered in natural metal. Any pics of production?

I see the "last" one is camo! not NM…..

[lmritger]

Mag-freakin'-nificent Mark! You never fail to surprise with your posts and the depth of coverage in each of them. I bow deeply to your Google-Fu!

Lynn

[Craig59]

City of Fort Worth was 41-11605 which Baugher shows as going to the RAF. Interesting!

[MarkN]

Hi Invader 26

None of the RAAF allocated B-24s came from Fort Worth.

They were made by Consolidated - San Diego (CO) and the A72-300s were built by North American Aviation - Dallas (NT).

With the exception of the early "second hand" allocation, some of the CO's subsequent went to Consolidated Tucson and all the NT's went to either Douglas Tulsa or NWA St. Paul for modification. Although none of the NWA modified arrived in Australia, just one made it as far as Long Beach.

Photos of RAAF allocated B24s at NAA Dallas or any B-24 production there, seem to be extremely rare, also keen for any that may be out there.

Mark

[Invader26]

Thank you Mark. I confused the two.

[gemmer]

Nice shot of a B-24E, apparently built from a Ford supplied "knock down " kit. Note how the greenhouse configuration and nose gun location differ from a D model.

Duane

[tom roberts]

Again thanks for all the great pictures. One thing that always gets my attention is that there are no obese or over weight people in those days. Prior to fast food I guess

[Ken]

The factory scenes always fascinate me. Awesome post. A reminder of why America was once great. Thanks!!

Ken

[Chris Brame]

Only Liberator photo I have, but here you go:

[gemmer]

This is an intersting pic. These again are either Willow Run assembled B-24Es or assembled knock downs at Douglas or Fort Worth. Note the location of the pitot tubes on the a/c in the foreground which is also the original location for early D models without cheek guns. While not mounted, the nose gun would be in the extreme lower part of the nose. The two a/c in the backround are later model Es with relocated pitots, cheek guns and a nose gun located much higher in a much more logical location. It always amazed me that it took Ford to come up with a workable nose gun installation for the B-24 prior to the nose turreted models. By then it was too late as most if not all B-24s remained stateside as trainers.

Duane

[Chappie]

Great shots, I love the photos of the people working on the aircraft that won the war. It's cool that 50+ years later there were similar lines of F-16s rolling down the same production line as those B-24s. I'll bet firing up that B-24D inside the plant and taxiing out the door created quite a racket!


Chappie

[tulsaboy]

Duane- They're not Douglas-Tulsa built examples; at least, they aren't pictured at the factory in Tulsa. The buildings in the background are clearly not Tulsa. So Willow Run or Ft. Worth.

kevin