page_title: Heavy Press Program
hierarchical_section_title: Heavy Press Program
caption_attribution_description: English: Located at Wyman-Gordon, Grafton, Massachusetts The Wyman-Gordon Forging Press, along with a similar press owned by the Alcoa Company of Cleveland, Ohio, represents the culmination of many years' attempts to build heavy presses. Motivated by Cold War fears and the demand for new aircraft in the Korean War, the United States Air Force instituted a "Heavy Press Program" during the post-World War II years. The program aimed to create presses large enough to make magnesium parts for new aircraft designs. This press was designed and built by the Loewy Construction Company. The new manufacturing capabilities of this type of press considerably broadened the range of materials and structures available for use in aircraft. Heavy presses make it possible to forge extremely large, complex pieces essential to the structural systems of modern jet-powered aircraft. Despite its bulk, the press is a flexible production tool, allowing the manufacture of many different types of precision parts.
context_page_description: The Heavy Press Program was a Cold War-era program of the United States Air Force to build the largest forging presses and extrusion presses in the world. These machines greatly enhanced the US defense industry's capacity to forge large complex components out of light alloys, such as magnesium and aluminium. The program began in 1950 and concluded in 1957 after construction of four forging presses and six extruders, at an overall cost of $279 million. Eight of them are still in operation today, manufacturing structural parts for military and commercial aircraft. They still hold the records for size in North America, though they have since been surpassed by presses in Japan, France, Russia and China.
  The program produced ten machines, listed below.
context_section_description: The Heavy Press Program was a Cold War-era program of the United States Air Force to build the largest forging presses and extrusion presses in the world. These machines greatly enhanced the US defense industry's capacity to forge large complex components out of light alloys, such as magnesium and aluminium. The program began in 1950 and concluded in 1957 after construction of four forging presses and six extruders, at an overall cost of $279 million. Eight of them are still in operation today, manufacturing structural parts for military and commercial aircraft. They still hold the records for size in North America, though they have since been surpassed by presses in Japan, France, Russia and China.
  The program produced ten machines, listed below.
caption: The Wyman-Gordon 50,000-ton forging press
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