1942-1945 – Four photographs of Air Force Plant 3, the “Tulsa Bomber Plant”
Tulsa, Oklahoma: [The War Department], 1942-1945. Unbound. All the photographs in this lot measure 10” x 8”, None are captioned. In nice shape.
The photographs show:
A completed A-24 Dauntless Dive Bomber hanging from an overhead hoist inside a huge construction above three unfinished planes and about a dozen plant workers.
Two workers decorating the nose of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator with capital Vs (for victory) and a large U. S. flag made from coins and dollar bills.
Four B-24s and one A-24s sit on the pan or apron on a snowy day.
A string of tank cars carrying flammable liquid are parked on two Frisco Railroad track sidings.
. Very good. Item #010318During the general mobilization that occurred before the United States entered World War Two, the civic leaders of Tulsa lobbied hard to become the location of one of several new aircraft assembly plants soon to be built. The War Department agreed to build a plant if the city would provide land for the facility and its associated runways. Tulsa agreed and its citizens promptly passed a $750,000 bond issue which allowed it to purchase suitable land adjacent to the existing city airport. Groundbreaking took place in May 1941, and the plant was dedicated on 15 August 1942.
The Douglas Aircraft Company was contracted to operate the plant and assemble A-24 Dauntless Dive Bombers for the Army, A-26 Invader medium bombers, and Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers. More than 23,000 people worked at the plant during its peak production period.
The 4,000’ x 200’ plant provided 800,00 square foot of floor space under a 40’ foot high ceiling with crane hoists that could carry multi-engine aircraft. Parts and raw materials brought to the plant by St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad trains entered the building at one end and, after moving through the assembly line, exited the building at the other end as completed aircraft.
Following the war the plant was mothballed by Tinker Air Force Base at Oklahoma City, however it was pressed back into operation during the Cold War and again used to assemble aircraft, modify existing planes, and produced a variety of missile, space, stealth, and electronic-countermeasure components. It closed in 1991.
(For more information, see “Tulsa Bomber Plant” at the online Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.)
These photograph, which were found in a collection of 1930s and 1940s Oklahoma ephemer, were mistakenly identified a being from “OKC” [Oklahoma City] instead of Tulsa.
Scarce. Modern 4” x 6” reproduction World War 2 bomber plants are readily available, Original 8”x10” photographs are not.
.Price: $200.00