WW2 U.S. Navy Metal Smiths - Making aircraft parts from scratch (1944, Restored Color)

Spare parts for Naval aircraft weren't always readily available at sea or in the field. Your see Navy metal smiths produce a replacement engine cowling from scratch in the field, including producing a mold and casting, for a PBY Catalina and repairing a PB4-Y (the Navy's B-24) with a new nose turret and more.
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[@ZenosWarbirds]

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[@amdg2023]

My dad was an aviation metalsmith on north island naval Base in ww2 and when we went back for his 50th wedding anniversary (my mom was a a Wave and they got married in 44) they were still using the F4U Corsair wing bucks for the FA 18 Jets! I found a pack of ww2 lucky strike cigs inside one of the bucks! He was a cool dad and my mom raised all nine of us and we're still around. Go Navy.

[@sidneycashion7817]

These were good jobs , my uncle served at a stamping mill and after the war got a good union job he held until he retired at 65.

[@tapiorissanen7652]

Such AdHoc repairs and producing spare parts from scratch required versatile craftsmanship. Such skill sets are rare in a modern industries based on automation and specilization restricted set of tasks..

[@donaldparlettjr3295]

These were your relatives at work. Good honest work. Rewarding work. Skills that aren't taught so much nowadays.

[@typehere6689]

Those sorts of things look like things I'd have a blast learning if I was younger.

[@itsumonihon]

This video is totally amazing. Those guys were fantastic.

[@JR-qz3zt]

Damn. I would have loved to be a part of that!!!!

[@rsc9520]

Me too !!!

[@jpatt1000]

I never knew this stuff went on outside the factory. For a cowling section, I would've figured on hammer/dolly and English wheel work. I do suppose that type of work would also be necessary in the field where drop hammers weren't found under every tree, not to mention a mini-foundry for casting the dies! I liked the stretch forming of the plexi as well. Would've like too seen how the whole unit was assembled and maybe some blow forming. Very interesting stuff!

[@hoilst]

A lot of hobbyist blacksmiths around the place got their drop hammers from Navy surplus - they were tucked down in the bowels of ships for repairs just like this. Nowadays, Lockheed would probably sue the crap out of you for making parts for their aircraft in the field.

[@stevebrickshitta870]

Amazing footage, of incredibly skilled workers. Cheers👍

[@northstarforest]

Excellent, thanks much for posting this. These skill-sets were common among civilian US workers back in the 1940's with the larger and more distributed manufacturing base, plus prevalence of trade schools. Not so much these days it seems.

[@typehere6689]

I find it sad considering just how obvious the practicality of things like that is when compared to some rule-based number crunching(I will acknowledge that such things have their place)that doesn't do anything obvious to the common man

[@davidjose2193]

That kind of shop-based fabrication and fitting would take six months and $10,000 dollars at a war bird restorer these days!

[@fooman2108]

There is a story about Greg 'Pappy' Boyington setting down (crash landing) on a newly opened (he had been briefed that the new strip was opened and could be used as a divert field in case of damage) fighter strip. He took damage to his Corsair which created engine problems with it cutting out, and was forced to set down. Turns out and the strip was not quite as complete as briefed and after a short run-out he hit a BULLDOZER, parked on the run way, damaging his prop. Boyington was examined by corpsman, went to the base command shack and radioed back to his squadron for a new prop and some mechanics to attend to the damaged bird. When Pappy went to back to his air craft he found that the SeaBees had used a wooden a-frame to remove the 13' diameter prop and moved to their forge and were industriously heating it up preparatory to hitting it with a large HAMMER to straighten it! Boyington was stunned, the SeaBees said they would be done in a couple of hours and he could leave in the morning, the squadron mechanics were not even due till noon the next day! If is recall correctly (and it has been many years since I heard the story) Boyington got in the aircraft, gave it a brief test run, and pronounced that it would get him home! He did say it had a hell of a vibration at full throttle so he flew it home slowly but he made it home (thanking God for not encountering any Japanese).

[@JohnDoe-ee6qs]

fooman2108 do you remember where you heard it?, if it's in a book it might be an interesting read.

[@fooman2108]

Not sure... Baa Baa Blacksheep by Boyington? Might be a SeaBee diary that I read some place, sorry do not recall. Had a CPO tell me the definition of a sea story "20% fact, 20% fiction, 60% BALLS! (the tell lies like that!)" it is entirely possible that, that is what this is....

[@exJacktar]

That was for me a very interesting and fascinating video, as I am a modern day sailor who works in metal, albeit for ships not aircraft.

[@mikearakelian6368]

Love the forging of engine cylinder parts back then...a skill I'm sure is lost now...with drawings and slide rules,manufacturing skills,made excellent radial engines that were and still very reliable!!

[@mikearakelian6368]

Job to have if you like working with your hands!!

[@mikearakelian6368]

Yep,more of this...

[@wntu4]

That would have been a cool job to have.

[@Flyingbrickyard]

Part of me is rather amused at the term "speed ring" applied to anything on a Catalina. It hardly could have been much slower without it! I do love the Catalina, but it was never known for speed.

[@ramonmartinez89]

awesome craftsmen!!!

[@MrRon6977]

They still are today. although today its more aircraft specific then general. And the AMS rating is now combined with some other rate But an AMS could pretty much switch from aircraft to aircraft in the Navy and have no problems adjusting. Might need a little aircraft specific's training but nothing else. I was a E-6 Aviation Metal Smith in the 80s and we did it all except the die making that was a more specific operation sent out to a particular company in the civilian world. We could do Plexi work but it was rare.

[@anthonyrosa5006]

I worked at 32nd street navsta and back in the 90s they were clearing out some buildings. There were english wheels, shears, brakes presses. All sorts of tools for skills that are rarely practiced these days. Photo labs that had tons of lead in the walls went to the scrap yards. Wasteful.

[@TheWizardGamez]

Can’t believe that they actually had enough space to put all of this in

[@johnLA1961]

They are not called the "Greatest Generation" for nothing.

[@CrossOfBayonne]

NBC jounalist Tom Brokaw coined it for the first 40th anniversary of D Day and as he describes it as kids who grew up during the Depression then fought in WW2

[@raybin6873]

Old school sailors all wearing dungarees and the unforgettable white caps....

[@JayWC3333]

Boy...standing over steaming melted lead...no health worries there... Yikes!

[@ZenosWarbirds]

Asbestos was widely used at the time as a fire retardant & was much worse. No one knew at that it was a carcinogen. Very sad.

[@farklefuster6876]

Didja notice no gloves when handling the sheet metal??

[@tonymontana5753]

very interesting

[@bigiron383]

AMS-2 AIMD Naha 1970-1974

[@dennisbaecht7860]

AMS-2 VT-24 75-79, VA-81 80-81

[@mk84ldb]

4:46, checks lunch in oven.

[@BigSkyCurmudgeon]

i've never seen a ball turret in a b-24 nose i wonder when that was?

[@bfmcarparts]

It isn't a USAAF B-24. It is a US NAVY Privateer. The early Privateers had B-24 twin tails later ones had a very tall single fin. I believe there is still one Privateer flying.

[@Mishn0]

It's an ERCO turret. Later PB4Y-1 Liberators and all PB4Y-2 Privateers had them.

[@Baza1964]

Navy upgrade to counter the German U boats action plan of staying on the surface to fight it out with the patrol craft.

[@maxborde210]

Safety was not good then.

[@1blackone]

0:50 Why the holy hell would he snatch at something falling INCHES from powered cutting tools?!

[@itsumonihon]

+1blackone Probably worried that if the end of the falling piece banged or swung into the blade it could be sent flying, dangerous. As long as you don't grab near the blade you're alright.

[@DrogoBaggins987]

+1blackone I wondered that as well. It must have been a grab without thinking.

[@sblack48]

Band saw is not one of the more dangerous tools

[@davidjose2193]

In all these old films about defense workers...No hearing protection, few wore gloves, no respirators, no eye protection...and they probably all took smoke breaks! But...few were fat like people today.

[@davidjose2193]

....and asbestos suits and gloves were commonplace in foundries and fire fighting.

[@cuttersgoose]

Sooo. The plexiglass top will protect the gunner from sunburn frostbite and light flak??! Yeah.. ok ...😂

[@logjam88]

Amazing. I guess work gloves and safety glasses hadn't been invented yet...

[@mk84ldb]

Or respirators when sloshing molten lead around.

[@stevebrickshitta870]

And guess what? The survived. They were careful and attentive to what they were doing. Their lives depended on it. Today, people are just careless and don't take responsibility for their own actions. Have some safety gear, think they're invincible and are just generally slack. It would be rare today for someone to have these skills, This understanding of what they're doing, or even the work ethic of this and previous generations. Too many softtubes today.

[@lumox7]

Hope I only get that light flak, no heavy flak for me.

[@mk84ldb]

Put an extra layer of plexi on for me, heavy flak over the Ruhr Valley this week.

[@Dardrum]

Now in 2021 if we need parts, we have to order them from China.

[@TheWizardGamez]

Not even uss forestall

[@Buelligan88]

The war was over by the time they got the speed rings and gun tracks in those planes.

[@MrRon6977]

Uhhhh I think you really need to re think that. From the earlier aviation days until that bomber and pby flew during the war and after until new bombers were introduced and we started entering the jet age. And there are aircraft flying today That have those same particular parts on them. So I'm pretty confident with my studies in WW2 aircraft, and as my training as an Aviation Metal Smith that you are misinformed. I know this was an older post, but hey go figure... I'm slow.

[@MrRobster1234]

Sorry, but plexiglass won't stop sunburn.

[@commentatron]

Don't be foolish, do some reading: Plexiglas blocks at least 98% of UV radiation.

[@MasterChief-sl9ro]

If you waited for parts from the factory. You would be out of action for 6 months. Before the parts got to you 9k miles away... But your ass could have a Coke 500 yards from the front lines...

[@raxxtango]

What happened to all of those musicians after these propaganda films ended?

[@waterheaterservices]

They were sent to glorious revolutionary humanist socialist people's California for re education for Party Approved Correct Thinking and Speech.