Wow! I certainly hope the
National Aircraft Corp earned themselves an indictment.
Production[edit]
From 1942-1945, the Ford Motor Company's plant in Kingsford, Michigan, built 4,190 Model CG-4A gliders for use in combat operations during World War II. The Kingsford plant built more CG-4A gliders than any other company in the nation at much less cost than other manufacturers. The other primary builders of the Model CG-4A gliders were located in Troy, Ohio; Greenville, Michigan; Astoria, New York; Kansas City, Missouri and St. Paul, Minnesota.
The 16 companies that were prime contractors for manufacturing the CG-4A were:
- Babcock Aircraft Company of DeLand, Florida (60 at $51,000 each) [3]
- Cessna Aircraft Company of Wichita, Kansas (750) The entire order was subcontracted to Boeing Aircraft Company's new Wichita plant.
- Commonwealth Aircraft of Kansas City (1,470)
- Ford Motor Company of Kingsford, Michigan (4,190 units at $14,891 each)
- G&A Aircraft of Willow Grove, PA (627)
- General Aircraft Corporation of Astoria, L.I.,NY (1,112)
- Gibson Refrigerator of Greenville, Michigan (1,078)
- Laister-Kauffman Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri (310)
- National Aircraft Corp. of Elwood, IN (one, at an astronomical $1,741,809)[4]
- Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation of Minneapolis (1,510)
- Pratt-Read of Deep River, Connecticut (956)
- Ridgefield Manufacturing Company of Ridgeville, New Jersey (156)
- Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis (170)
- Timm Aircraft Company of Van Nuys, California (434)
- Waco Aircraft Company of Troy (1074 [999] units at $19,367 each)[5]
- Ward Furniture Company of Fort Smith, Arkansas (7)[6][7][8]
The factories ran 24-hour shifts to build the gliders. One night-shift worker in the Wicks Aircraft Company factory in Kansas City wrote,
“On one side of the huge bricked-in room is a fan running, on the other a cascade of water to keep the air from becoming too saturated with paint. The men man the paint sprayers covering the huge wings of the glider with the Khaki or Blue and finishing it off with that thrilling white star enclosed in a blue circle that is winging its way around the world for victory ...
The wings are first covered with a canvas fabric stretched on like wallpaper over plywood then every seam, hold, open place, closed place, and edge is taped down with the all adhesive dope that not only makes the wings airtight, but covers my hands, my slacks, my eyebrows, my hair, and my tools with a fast-drying coat that peels off like nail polish or rubs off with a thinner that burns like Hell.
[9]