What WW II Can Tell Us About Battling Coronavirus-- Part 5: About That Mile-Long Assembly Line

The U.S. government also pressured companies into sharing intellectual property so production wasn't limited by the capacity of a single company.    When the military needed more B-17 bombers than Boeing could produce, it hired Lockheed to pick up the slack, requiring Boeing to pay Lockheed modest licensing fees.

Also during the war, FDR's administration eased back on antitrust enforcement.

These same sort of moves could now help in ventilator production, so desperately needed for the worst infected.  When this was written, President trump had not enacted his 1950 Defense Production Act which he has since done.

During WW II, the U.S. government paid to build plants, owned them, hired companies to run them  and bought all the output.  That allowed companies to expand their footprint  without worrying about a return on their investment and ensured that the government got what it needed, when it needed it.

That's how road-building  company Brown & Root ended up with a $90 million Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, and how Ford got  the mile-long assembly line at the Willow Run bomber plant.

--GreGen

Shorpy Home Front Photos: Warship of the Air: 1942

From the Shorpy site.

NOVEMBER 23, 2014.  "Warship of the Air: 1942."

December 1942.  "Production B-17 heavy bombers.  The four mighty engines of a new B-17F (Flying Fortress) bomber warm up at the airfield of Boeing's Seattle plant as another warship of the air awaits its test flight.

"The Flying fortress has performed with great credit in the South pacific, over Germany and elsewhere.  It is a four engine heavy bomber capable of flying at high altitudes."

Andreas Feininger, OWI.

Bombs Away!  -GreGen

Shorpy Photos: Home Front Bombers

APRIL 29, 2014, NEW SHOE 1943--  Dec. 1942.  "A landing wheel with its huge rubber 'shoe' is trumbled out in a service tractor to a new B-17F (Flying Fortress) bomber awaiting completion at Boeing's Seattle plant."  Operated by a woman, who make up half the plant's workers.  By Andreas Feininger, OWI.

APRIL 27, 2014, LET'S BUILD A BOMBER: 1942--  Dec. 1942  "Production of B-17 heqavy bomber.  A skilled team of men and women workers at Boeing plant Seattle complete assembly and fitting operations of a fuselage section for a new B-17F (Flying Fortress)."  By Andreas Feininger.

Bombers, Oh My!  --GreGen