Dating to World War II, this film tells the story of the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation and the manufacture of blimps and aircraft. It begins with a shot of Paul W. Litchfield, the American industrialist who was president (1926–40) and chairman of the board (1930–58) of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, a firm that he helped develop into a worldwide operation. Also shown is Lt. Dougherty of the U.S. Navy and a representative of the U.S. Army. The four are looking at a model of the Goodyear Aircraft Corp. plant in Akron, Ohio. Construction of the plant, which would build bomber aircraft, is shown including throwing of hot rivets. At 1:30, female workers and other employees arrive at the gates of the new plant. At 1:47 a woman buys a cigarette from a vending machine. At 1:57 a drafting room is shown with women war workers. At 2:28, a woman is shown working a bandsaw and many other women war workers are shown.At 3:15, a group of deaf women are shown who work in the plant, signing with their hands.
Engine nacelles are seen being built and wing components in the plant, using large presses built by Lake Erie. 100,000 planes were built in the factory in 18 months. Drop hammers are seen at 5:00.
At finished wing is moved at 6:23. At 7:07, the very first FG-1 Corsair is towed across the airport for its first test flight. The Corsair is shown in flight at 8:15 on its shakedown flight. At 9:50 the ferry pilot takes the plane from Akron to Columbus for delivery.
At 10:12 factory workers stream out of the plant. At 10:50, ballon production is shown with women working to sew the gigantic bags together. At 11;13 women walk across the balloon wearing special felt shoes to prevent damage. At 12:19 a blimp car is assembled using chromoly tubes. At 12:46 a women welder works on the nose of the airship. At 13:55 the blimp car is ferried for mating with the envelope at Wingfoot Lake. At 14:21 the car and envelope are mated. At 17:00, Wingfoot Lake receives a visitor — Asst. Secretary of the Navy Di Gates. At 18:25, blimp K-3 heads off to join the fleet.
The K-class blimp was a class of blimps (non-rigid airship) built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio for the United States Navy. These blimps were powered by two Pratt & Whitney Wasp nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engines, each mounted on twin-strut outriggers, one per side of the control car that hung under the envelope. Before and during World War II, 134 K-class blimps were built, configured for patrol and anti-submarine warfare operations and were extensively used in the Navy’s anti-submarine efforts in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean areas.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
