Field capacity to repair, overhall, reconstuct, and build airplanes in W.W.I.I.

"John Freck" wrote in message
om...
A question has come up on anoouhter thread: Did airbases during
W.W.I.I have mini-factories near-by able to assemble airplanes from a
combination of recylced parts, mini-milled machine parts (ferrous
parts and aluminium parts, but not organic parts), and new spare
parts?


No

I have seen several domumentaries were there are mentions of small
industrial furnaces being deployed to the Pacific and new part
milling, the robust repair and recylcing of Hurricanes, and in one
documentary on the B-26 of whole plane final assemeble do right on
base from parts from a vareity of sources.


You have asked several questions, to answer them individually

1) Were small industrial furnaces deployed to the Pacific ?

That depends on what you define as a small industrial furnace.
Blacksmiths forges certainly were, aluminium smelters
certainly were not.

2) Were new parts sometimes milled in the field ?

Sure but only at great need, normally you pick the
spares up from the stores maintained on base and
which are purchased from the aircraft manufacturer

3) Were Hurricanes repaired and even recycled ?

Certainly, an entire organisation was created for just
this purpose with minor battle damage being handled
by the squadrons themselves, more substantial repairs
being handled by specialist units which were part of the
Civilian Repair Organisation and were located away from
the airfields.

4 ) In addition, I have heard that on US aircraft carriers any metal
aircraft part can be made on board using furnances and milling tools
right on board: Is this so today?

No, think about for a moment , can you make an engine control
micro processor with a furnace and milling machine ?

5) Was this so in W.W.I.I. ?

No, you cant make a Merlin Engine or an H2S radar set that
way either.



6) How many airmen did the Allied airforces have ground working in
England?

Hundreds of thousands

7) How sophisticated and massive was aircraft maintence?

It was comparable to the motor industry

8) Could they assemble a warplane?

No, in the same way your local Ford dealer cant assemble a
new Mondeo

9) Could they make a new engine using badly
damaged engines as the raw material?

They could scavenge parts from a dead one to keep
a live engine going but this would be done only in
extreme circumstances, engine failure on take off
usually kills the pilot and crew


Also, the internet didn't have a great deal on on-base or near-base
cottage warplane stuff, but it gets mentions in documeteries.


Lets kill this once and for all.

I live in East Anglia, there are literally dozens of old USAAF and
RAF base within 25 miles of my house. NOT ONE had or had
such a facility. Just doing routine maintenenance and battle damage
repair had the ground crews working 12-16 hours a day as it was.

Get Real

Keith