September 2003 The Megaphone Page 5
Elwood's Glider Factory
The Elwood Call-Leader
Saturday, May 18, 1940
City's Factories Offered to U.S.
Bureau Contacts Senate, House Legislators Today
Action which may enhance the possibilities of Elwood becoming the site of
a government airplane or munitions factory was taken today, according to O.D.
Hinshaw, president of the Elwood Industrial Bureau.
Letters and telegrams to legislators, noting the availability of
factories and factory sites in Elwood, have been sent by the bureau, Hinshaw
revealed. The step was taken in line
with the President’s request in his address to Congress earlier this week that
such factories be located far inland. Bids similar to Elwood’s have also been
made by
Location of such factories for the manufacture of airplanes and munitions
is in line with the expansion of the national defense program for which funds
totaling $1,600,000,000 were approved yesterday by the Senate subcommittee.
Communications by the bureau to Senate and House solons noted the
city’s two available factories which might easily be employed to such use as
would expansion of the national defense program demand.
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The Elwood Call-Leader
Thursday, September 26, 1940
Airplane Factory Will Locate Here
May Employ 400 Within One Year
Plans for the establishment of a factory which will engage in the
manufacture of plywood airplane fuselages, wings and pontoons and which is
expected to employ approximately 400 persons within a year’s period, were
learned today by The Call-Leader.
The factory, it was learned, will be located in a section of the Corning
Glass Factory, directly adjoining the national Trailer Corp. factory.
Milo E. Miller, president of the National Trailer Corp. is expected to
head the new firm although Mr. Miller could not be reached today for comment or
for details of the establishment.
Manufacture of the airplane parts is expected to begin within 60 days.
Negotiations for the location of the factory, the largest to locate in
Elwood in a number of years, have been in progress for a number of weeks.
Recently, several models of the fuselage, wing and pontoons were constructed and
submitted to the Civil Aeronautics Authority for approval. Although, CAA
approval it is believed has not yet been given, all parts have been thoroughly
tested.
The new firm, which, it is believed, may adapt the name of National
Airplane Company, has purchased the present unused section of the
This section will be placed in order for actual manufacturing operations
almost immediately it is believed. No estimate has been given on the starting
force which will be employed by the firm but it was learned from usually
reliable sources that approximately 400 men would be in the actual employ of the
company within a year’s time.
The fuselage, wing and pontoon parts will be constructed of plywood.
These parts will be sold to airplane manufacturing companies for the use in
commercial craft. At a later date, it is believed these parts may be used in the
manufacture of training ships.
Establishment of the factory will mean much to the industrial welfare of
Elwood. It is perhaps the major announcement of its kind in the past several
years.
At the present time, many of the details surrounding the establishment of the factory are unavailable. These details are either incomplete or lacking official confirmation but it can readily be understood that establishment of such a factory may literally provide the answer for the city’s industrial prayers.
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The Elwood Call-Leader
November 7, 1940
Editorial: The Plywood Plane Is Here
*This photo was not part of the original article
The plywood airplane has arrived. That may be aviation’s biggest news
since the first all-metal plane took to the air.
It is news of vast importance to all of us as well.
For aviation is in a jam. October output was behind schedule. The War
Department is appealing for a 24-hour day. Manufacturers are racking their
brains for short cuts to whip up production of trainers, fighters and bombers.
But the jam is in metal planes. Plywood planes are drastically different.
And while they cannot break the engine bottleneck, the men who have been
experimenting with plywood planes believe that they very probably can smash the
aircraft bottleneck, and do it soon.
Plywood planes are cheaper to build that metal planes. They require
practically no skilled labor. They are made from trees which can be converted
quickly into plywood. And because they do not need expensive tools and dies,
plywood planes can be built so swiftly that they can be ready to fly a few days
after their design has been completed.
Some 14 companies have completed experimental plywood planes or have them
under construction. Three companies have government orders of approximately
$1,000,000 each for experimental planes. The plywood planes built up to now are
light training planes; but one company has completed a five-place plane and
another is building a medium-sized bomber.
Plywood, of course, consists of thin sheets or veneers of wood laid in
layers, with the grain of each layer at an angle to adjoining ones. The layers
are then glued, or ‘bonded’, with a liquid.
Plywood planes can be made in a few days by unskilled labor. Any
furniture factory could be a source of airplanes. And instead of dies which
frequently cost upwards of a hundred thousand dollars, the plywood plane needs
only simple shells or forms of wood costing a few hundred dollars each.
The most important point about plywood planes is that they may eliminate
the spending of billions of dollars for airplanes, which perhaps will be
obsolete when completed. Because the molds are cheap and simple, an experimental
plane may be made inexpensively. Flaws in design will come to light without
spending the thousands and thousands of dollars which a flying model of a metal
plane costs. And if a change in the design of the plywood plane is needed, it is
a simple matter of a few hours for a carpenter to change the shape of the mold.
The aviation industry awaits with tremendous interest the tests of the medium sized plywood bomber now nearly completed. If the tests do not uncover any unforeseen flaws in plywood construction, we may expect a revolutionary change in airplane building.