Flying High

       More Letters From Paradise
             Flying High
I understand perfectly, aircraft construction. This is because my friends and I built light, balsa wood airplanes. These airplanes were built from a kit. These kits came in all sizes, and were cheap. The kits were boxes containing several thin flat sheets of balsa wood, with the parts printed on them. There were also several thin balsa wood strips, a  wire bent into shape for a landing gear, two wood wheels, a propeller, a long rubber band, a couple sheets of tissue paper, a tube of glue, and the building plans.

You had to find some additional items. A large piece of fiber board,cardboard,or anything you could cut upon. And,a handful of straight pins, and several single-edge razor blades.

The construction proceeded as follows: The building plan was spread out, and then the printed parts were all cut out with a razor blade. The round cowling shapes that formed the shape of the plane were in different sizes. These were held in place with pins, until the glue was dry. It was difficult, exacting work. These parts had to have notches cut into them to receive the long thin strips which would be glued to the round cut shapes.The plan showed were each of these parts belonged. The long rubber band was put inside the body of the plane before all the thin strips were glued.

So much for the body. The wings and tail were tear drop shapes, again of different sizes, and were properly placed on the  plan, and glued in place.  The landing gear was glued in place.  The the two wood wheels were attached, and the nose propeller with the rubber band was hooked to the plane.  If all went right, you now had the skeleton of an airplane.  Next, tissue paper covered the body, wings, and tail of the plane. To give strength to the plane it was brushed all-over with something called "Dope." I don't know what is was, but probably some sort of shellac. But, we were not done yet.  It had to be painted. The "Dope" had stiffened the tissue to a firm, smooth surface. Sometimes the kit would contain some decals which could be used if desired.

At long last it was finished. It had taken many days of patient work. The beauty of this was that not only did it teach you patience and craftsmanship, but it kept you out of your parents' hair. It was wonderful to see your creation take wings and fly, the product of your own two hands. No snap-together parts, just balsa wood, tissue paper and glue. You could also buy some tiny aircraft engines for your plane. I once won a model plane contest, and the prize? A model plane kit.

And, as long as I am on the subject of airplanes, I want to mention  some facts that you might not know.   First, during WW11 it was thought that it would be impossible to build an airplane on an assembly line, Henry Ford proved them wrong. Wings and other parts were trucked to the Willow Run Bomber Plant, outside of Detroit, where they were fitted to the body of the planes. The bomber plant was operated every day, all day, and all the week long.  The plant employed a large number of women, as the men had gone to war.   Dwarfs bucked rivets from inside of the wings, where only they could fit. And, the astonishing fact is that when the assembly line had reached its peak, one ready to fly bomber was completed every hour!  All that was left to do was to sight the guns, and test fly the plane.  We were building bombers faster than the enemy could destroy them. And,we had the problem of training enough men to fly them.  But we should also remember that our casualty rate was 65 percent.   Each bomber carried a crew of ten men.   So when a  plane went down, you lost not only a plane, but often the entire crew too.

I want to mention that Tonto's father was a gunner on a B17, and his brother was also a gunner on a B24. Her father survived the war, but her uncle did not. His plane"Shack Rabbit," was shot down over Nuremburg.
We should all remember the men who flew into danger.
         Aloha
         Grant