the train now continues on its way into position under the press the operator touches a switch the press starts down and look out below almost unbelievable pressure an irresistible force but under perfect control and where plane sheet metal went in finished parts come out the hydro press turns out more parts in one minute then two men could complete in a whole day and turns them out better and more accurate a compressed air stamp which forges metal is an excellent example of powerful machinery under absolute control trapped as gentle as a tack hammer then the crushing impact what a nut cracker this out that would make and yet its control is so delicate that it can crack an egg at least so the operator claims look out there a little too hard and you'll have an awful mess because well where oh hello stranger use certainly have a brand new kind of a mama skilled ma'am and precision machine that fabricated these parts but even metal can be strengthened then protected to do this there are several types of processing complete electro chemical anodizing baths provide parts with a protective coating of oxide film this is a safeguard against the threat of corrosion caused by moisture it is an interesting fact that these parts are protected against any harmful effects of moisture by being given the bat another type of bath is used for a different purpose in order to harden and thereby strengthen certain parts they are immersed in a hot soap solution of sodium potassium nitrate in large ovens other parts are hardened by baking at fifteen hundred fifty degrees fahrenheit and quenching them in oil it is easy enough to say that these parts which will eventually be the plane are strong to prove that they are to constantly guard the lockheed measure of strength is the duty of the testing laboratory  spectrograph is one of the most modern scientific testing devices it analyzes the purity of the metal alloys which go into a plane tremendous heat created by an arc burned sample filings  these filings are placed in a cavity on the lower of two acid created graphite electrodes and then burned the light of the burning metal passes through a lens and then through a rotating sector the adjustable opening of which controls the amount of light falling on the into wavelengths these wavelengths or light rays fall upon a strip of film add up but a graphic record of them is thus produced since each element has its own wavelength from the developed film it is possible to determine exactly which are present in the in this manner the spectrograph immediately detects all impurities and any inferior metal is promptly discarded the sole purpose of this huge machine is to break things its powerful jaws capable of a compression of three hundred thousand pounds are about thousand pounds seventy thousand there it is a slight ripple the breaking point has been reached and it takes the pressure of over eighty thousand pounds to even bend this frail little section of a wing contrast let's see what happens to a solid cylinder of concrete which certainly appears much stronger there is the first crack and the concrete shatters completely under a pressure of less than seventy five thousand  all stressed parts such as forging some castings are x rayed for any possible flaws in the metal lockheed x rated more parts than all other aircraft manufacturers combined same they look new and shiny on the surface but that doesn't matter are they like underneath this patch is fine perfect a different story here slight almost imperceptible flaws which doom it to the scrapheap would be invisible to any other than the x rays therefore although it is important to know what is on the outside of a plane every stress part is x rayed because lockheed thinks it is even more important to be absolutely positive of what is on the inside every part of this plane is built for the  and while the plane is in flight the dials and indicators on the panel are the guide by which a pilot flies over a half mile of wire connects them with the controlling instruments which must be infinitely accurate before they are installed in the instrument testing laboratory each instrument and accessory is to all intents and purposes actually flown before being installed on the plane itself for instance on the stand a motor duplicate the swing of a plane to test the turn and bank indicators here keep it as true to its course as the most experienced pilot an airplane is a chain of which the thousands of separate parts of the links they must be boards together in order to shape the wing the tail on the fuselage  have the wing is to provide the lift that sustains the flight of an airplane here in the plant it must be assembled as flawlessly as it was designed although a wing is generally considered as a unit it is really composed of three parts remember it was just a small part of the wing that we saw withstand a compression of eighty thousand pounds each operation is executed with precision and care as the outer section moves down the production line and take shape high speed electric drills punch holes for the rivets that are more than seven hundred dollars or riveters who have all had previous training even so before they were assigned to actual production they must attend lockheed's own school until they can up the plan standard  sea and skills there are more than fifty thousand rivets on a completed wing and every one of them is checked examined and checked again this requires an army of over two hundred inspectors such as this one but by the time a lucky plane is assembled every square inch of it has been inspected at least five times inspector number one hundred fifty eight finds this role perfect and ok since i have the story of one outer wing section is the story of ten of twenty of  sections as they move down the line in an endless parade of mass production where the emphasis on press vision then crown of the the assembly line but the center section of the wing is one of the largest and most vital units in the plant it has to be because the center section is the strong man of the plane it must be constructed and assembled so as to be able to support heavy loads and to withstand great strain or it unites the two outer wings with the fuselage the fuselage will eventually rest in the gap between the two shoulders and the wings will be joined like arms on either side the main beam of the center section is the strongest part the backbone of the entire plane like a bridge must carry any burden with steadfast dependability and the mean beam is built just like a bridge after all times it carries of the flying load the engine load and the landing load and it is stressed to support more than five times the total weight of a fully loaded claim completed and assemble capable of supporting a static load of seventy thousand pounds the wing will do its job as the men who built it have done there aerodynamic design and streamlining and during construction these basic principles are built into the fuselage and applied to every operation from the beginning to the completed show as the first step in its assembly the bulkheads are joined together by stringers which form the basic shape and strength of the fuselage skin that is them fit and shape the metal sheet attaching them with removable fasteners on their heels come the riveters while every stage of the assembly is constantly under the close check of inspectors assembling with electric continuous spot welders facilitates production and gives many fuselage parts an extra smoothness for better streamlining with an eye to the future lucky to constantly enlarging on this process because while longer soon sunlight will be glinting from its metal sides its nose will point up when in the comfort of its cabin passengers will write to or sleep or think after their own fashion and beneath it the lakes there is truth in the slogan that it takes a lucky to be the lucky and as the plane approaches the field it slows down before the landing plan has been adopted and developed by lockheed the flap gives a greater lift to the wing and provides a break action to reduce the speed the plane lands at sixty five miles an hour and from a height of fifty feet it can come to a complete stop in less than six hundred yards this lockheed lodestar with its safety its comfort and its great speed bombers better known as the lockheed hudson bombers are rolling off the production line at an ever increasing rate they have been ordered in great quantities by great britain and australia when ready for delivery by boat the hudson bombers are dismantled the slee are carefully encased in canvas and the wings already stowed away below decks are created in wooden frames for safe shipments when the planes reach their destination they are easily reassembled and soon ready to take their places in the stars defen of the british empire and while these planes start on their long journey by water others are being given their final test flights but a tough job ahead and still more are winging their way directly toward kind of them in developed the modern conception of mass production lucky just building vast quantities for the united states army and many of its features are closely guarded military secrets but it can be revealed that the p thirty eight will climb a mile in a minute and its motors are so quiet that it can approach any t