Manufacture of Military Aeroplanes

This film created by the Army shows: In Reel 1, spruce trees are cut in Washington, loaded on flat-cars, hauled to Vancouver, seasoned in kilns, cut, and planed. Women build small metal parts in an aircraft factory. Spruce beams for wings are halved, glued, and hollowed, and linen is sewn onto wings and doped. In Reel 2, spruce runners for fuselages are shaped and planed, and engine cradles are assembled and installed. Landing gear, gasoline tanks, and tail sections are installed, and parts for a Liberty engine are examined and the engine installed in a DH-4. Propellers are balanced, profiled, sanded, and inspected in a New Haven, Connecticut plant. In Reel 3, the propeller blades are synchronized with an airplane's guns, and a DH-4 is assembled, tested, dismantled, and crated. The video shows closeups and aerial views of Handley-Page and Caproni bomber planes, standard-8 mail planes, DH-4's, Navy flying boats, and an HSIL hydroaeroplane.

You can also watch this video in our main National Archives online catalog.