Evening star., 1942-08-16
Blind Spot Erased,
Flying Forts Become
Nemesis Of laps
Boeine Bombers Now
Produced in Many
Different Designs
Bv ALFRED TOOMBS,
Star Staff Correspondent.


package bombers being built here by
Boeing, but-sadly enough-they are
dead, l29 of them, it is said
They went to glorious death for
the Emperor because they thought
they'd found a foolproof way to at
tack the Flying Fortress. The sur
prise the little men got was one OF
the niftiest we have been able to
spring sofar in the war and it Illus
trates perfectly what the Boeing
engineers mean when they say their
manufacturing methods are flexible.
The story of the death of the
| Nlpponese flyers, as told here, is
based on official Army reports. 1t
has its start in the early DAYS of
the war when the first Bit Fort
! resses went forth to meet the enemy.
Blind Spot Discovered.
1t wasn't long before the Jap
fighter pilots discovered that there
was blind spot at the tail of the
American bombers. If you ap-
preached from this angle, you could
pour lead into the planes without
exposing yourself to fire.
They had good thing there for
while. But word was flashed back
to this country suggesting a change
IN the design of the planes which
were coming out of the Boeing fac
tory. Tail guns were installed to
cover the blind spot.
The rpuy ponIo1 ho,,,L L1,z
flown into the Pacific battle areas.
without the Japs hearing of the
change IN design.
one bright day. a squadron of Jap
fighter planes approached one of
the new models from the regular
position. The American gunner in
the rear, manning the new guns,
held his fire until the Jap was at
point blank range. Then he cut
loose.
Zero Is Vulnerable.
The Jap Zero Just disintegfated
The others in the squadron closed
in one by one and-one by one
they were shot down. The jap
Zero is a vulnerable plane. For one
thing 1t has cast crankcase and
when one Of our machine gun bull
lets hits this area, the cast metal
just flies to pieces-and so does the
rest of the plane.
The game went on for several
weeks. No word got back to the
Japanese headquarters as to what
had happened to the ships. All they
knew was that Zeros had gone out
and Zeros had not come back.
Then. one day, the remnants of
squadron got back to tell the Japs
about the new tail gun in the Bit.
The Incident illustrates the value
OF surprise IN building planes. The
enemy is always seeking out weak
spots. Methods OF attack are de-
signed to take advantage of these.
Our designers, of course. are always
changing the planes to overcome
these weaknesses.
When they have been changed,
the enemy often walks into sudden
death. as did the Japs.
This country Is seeking to achieve
mass production OF airplanes and
our mass production methods in the
past have made no allowance for
changes. You started with a design
and made mill of them just alike.
Few Exactly Alike.
But engineers at the Boeing fac
tory say that no more than five
flying FortresSes roll out Of the
plant doors which are exactly alike.
Yet they have reached something
which looks mighty like mass pro-
duction of these deadly, four-en-
gined bombers.
They have purposely kept their
manufacturing system flexible so as
to make changes from day to day.
The Boeing plant has not adopted
the automobile assembly line sys-
tenn because engineers here say that
way OF building planes makes it diff
f1cult to modify the model.
The system used here is called
production density" There is
modified assembly line in the big
plant, where small parts of the
plane are made and fitted together.
These parts flow into central area,
where the fuselage is put together
in stationary frame.
To be successful, this production
system must utilize every inch of
floor space in the factory.
This has been done successfully |
here. For instance, instead of lay
ing wings out fiat on the floor while
work is being done on them, the
wings are stood on end. Thus,
there is room for many at once.
Improved in Many Ways. |
The Flying Fortress has been i'm
proved in many ways since the
start Of the war It's weight has
been increased incredibly over the
original models
It has proved itself in the Pacific, |
but little has been heard of the
plane in the European theater
The English say that their Short |
Sterling and Halifax bombers are
more suited to European Warfare.
These English heavy bombers are
built to fly short distances at low
attitudes with heavy loads. The
Fortress is built to fly high and far. |
Because of the extra capacity of |
gasoline, it does not carry such
heavy loads.
The Boeing people feel that when
military men, who devel-
oped the Bit. get the chance to
operate the bombers over Germany.
the world will learn again of the
effectiveness of our long-range
bombers.
The Germans are in for some sur
prises, they say here, and if they
don't believe it, the Nazis might get
a little information from their Nip
ponese allies.