(H)our History Lesson: Aviation Production in Wichita, KS, WWII Heritage City

Postcard of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress and PT-17 Kaydet. On the back, "Products of the Wichita Division of Boeing Airplane Company, a mighty Boeing B-29 Superfortress is shown here with right wing extended over a sturdy little Boeing Kaydet primary trainer.

Edward & Elizabeth Burns Historical Research Pavilion, Wichita Public Library.

About this Lesson

This lesson is part of a series teaching about the World War II home front, with Wichita, Kansas designated as an American World War II Heritage City. The lesson contains readings and photos to contribute to learners’ understandings about Wichita’s contributions to aviation wartime production. The lesson contains a reading to learn about the milestones of production of the B-29 Superfortress, and two readings to consider the importance of the role of women in the local industries.

Objectives:

1. Explain the impact of the aviation industry on the population and growth of Wichita, and its contributions to the U.S. and the Allied forces.
2. Describe the contributions of, and challenges faced by, women in the aviation industry in Wichita.
3. Compare historical perspectives to synthesize and connect to larger wartime perspectives and themes.

Materials for Students:

1. Photos (can be displayed digitally)
2. Readings 1, 2, 3 (and optional extension readings)
3. Recommended: Map that includes Wichita, Kansas

Getting Started: Essential Question

How was the home front aviation industry in Wichita a key contributor to the efforts of the United States and its Allies?

Read To Connect

Reading 1: Newspaper

Teacher Tip: Share with students the three largest aviation production companies in Wichita: Cessna, Beechcraft, and Boeing. The companies produced different types of aircraft for the United States and its Allies. For example, Cessna also produced aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force. This newspaper article focuses on production by Boeing in Wichita. 

Definition: Apron – An area where aircraft are parked and maintained, loaded or unloaded, refueled, or boarded. 

Deliver B-29 Number 1,000 to U.S. Army 

$10,000 Plastered on Superfortress Figuring in Huge Ceremony Here 

Wichita Evening Eagle, February 14, 1945, p. 1 

The Wichita division of Boeing Airplane company today delivered to the army air forces the 1,000th B-29 Superfortress to be produced in the huge Boeing bomber plant here.

Marking a definite milestone on the road to victory over Japan and a great production achievement for the thousands of men and women employed at Boeing-Wichita, the No. 1000 Superfortress was turned over to the army in a brief but impressive ceremony on the Boeing flight apron this afternoon.

Attached to the glistening sides of the huge bomber was more than $10,000 in currency and coins, a spontaneous and voluntary contribution by Boeing employees to the infantile paralysis foundation. This  money was in addition to the $5,350 donated by the same employees in the two-day paralysis campaign conducted in the Boeing plants more than two weeks ago. The Superfortress was not only the 1,000th Wichita-built B-29 but the first airplane to wear a $10,000 coat of money.

At the same time, the army accepted delivery of the 10,346th Kaydet primary trainer to be built at Boeing-Wichita, the last of the series of the famed little training planes under the company’s current contract. 

With thousands of employees from both shifts looking on, J.E. Schaefer, Boeing vice president and general manager of the Wichita division, turned the two airplanes over to Brig. Gen. Ray G. Harris, commanding general of the midwestern district, air technical service command, who accepted them on behalf of the army air forces. . . 

It was June 29, 1943, that the first production model of the Boeing B-29 made its maiden flight from the Wichita municipal airport, a flight accomplished while the initial experimental models of the huge bomber were still undergoing tests at the Boeing plant in Seattle. This was recalled today by J.E. Schaefer in pointing out that less than a year after the first production model flight, Wichita-made B-29s carried out the opening raids on the Japanese homeland. 

‘Our Wichita plants produced the first combat Superfortress,’ Schaefer stated, ‘and here today we are seeing our one thousandth bomber preparing to take its place in the war against Japan. We’ll keep these B-29's coming in increasing numbers just as long as the army air forces needs them for victory in the Pacific.’ 

Delivery of the 1,000th Superfortress here came just a few weeks after Chairman J.A. Krug of the war production board announced in Washington that Boeing-Wichita's production had reached 100 B-29's a month. In attaining this production record, and also for their record established in building the Kaydet primary trainer, Boeing-Wichita employees have won five consecutive army-navy ‘E’ awards, the fifth award being made at a time when only four out of every 100 war plants in the nation had won their first. 

Boeing-Wichita has been the principal source of the Boeing B-29's used in combat missions to date. In addition, the Superfortresses are rolling in accelerating schedules form four other huge plants, those of the Boeing company in Seattle and Renton, Wash., the Bell plant at Marietta, Ga., and the Glenn L. Martin plant at Omaha, Neb. Also participating in this huge B-29 program are Briggs, Cessna, Chrysler, General Motors, Goodyear, Hudson, Murray and A.O. Smith, producing subassemblies. 

The Kaydet primary trainer delivered today was the 10,346th completed airplane and equivalent in spare parts to be built at Boeing-Wichita's Plant I, long the home of the primary trainer and now converted to B-29 production. Since Pearly Harbor this one plant here has delivered 44 percent of the primary training planes used by the army and navy while 14 other aircraft manufacturing firms combined were turning out the remaining 56 percent. The Boeing Kaydet was the first primary trainer to be completely standardized for both the army and the navy. 

Reading 2:  Newspaper

Women Operate Beechcraft Machines 

The Wichita Eagle; Sun, August 23, 1942, p. 14 

Beech Aircraft company has found little difference between men and women in their ability to realize the importance of their production to help win the war, according to Warren E. Blazier, personnel director of the company.  

‘Women and men alike are doing a great job,’ he said Saturday in discussing women in industry. Women have been given employment [at] Beech in increasing numbers since Pearl Harbor until they now number approximately 20 per cent of the total personnel.

Careful selection through scientific training and testing before going on the job, covering duties of the job, company rules and standards of dress, has eliminated in advance most of the special problems which might otherwise have arisen. In order to avoid regimentation in matters of dress, a considerable choice of color and style is allowed.

High tribute also was paid by Beechcraft’s personnel head to the women of Kansas and neighboring states. ‘Our experience in hiring women from Wichita, and from the smaller cities and farming districts in this vicinity, duplicates that with men from the same localities,’ he said. ‘Their character and personality traits are excellent. Persons born and reared in this part of the country are the most loyal, energetic, intelligent workers we could possibly ask for, men and women alike.’ 

A wide variety of operations, both machine and hand, are being performed by women at Beech Aircraft, working side by side with men. Very few restrictions have been found necessary on the types of work to which women can be assigned.  
The success of women workers at Beech Aircraft, it was stated, might also be partly attributed to the fact that one of the company’s principal executives is a woman. ‘The example set by our secretary-treasurer, Olive Ann Beech, in successfully filling a position of major importance in the aircraft industry, is a constant encouragement to our women workers, as proof that ability and diligence will win recognition,’ the company’s spokesman said. ‘Her insistence that a woman can do practically any job that a man can do is reflected in the management’s policy of equal pay for women doing men’s work, and equal treatment and consideration for both sexes.’ 

Reading 3: Newspaper article 

Counselors Aid Boeing Women 

The Wichita Eagle; March 28, 1943, p. 25 

Friendly smiles and a sincere desire to understand the personal problems of women in war industry is keeping countless women on the production lines at the Boeing Airplane company’s Wichita plants. 

Boeing’s counselor service offers every woman in the big plants an opportunity to air her problems confidentially and assures her of sympathetic understanding. The advice offered by trained and experienced counselors is dependent on what appears to be best for the employee and for the good of her fellow employees.  

A woman at Boeing is part of a huge industry and her work is for the good of the group. If she is satisfied at her work, production is greater, better and faster. Counselors see their job as a means of keeping each cog in a great machine well- lubricated and moving smoothly. They try to keep from letting these essential cogs slip. Because that means replacement. One of the greatest problems of Boeing women advisors is that of helping women factory workers realize they are not incompetent – even if they are inexperienced. A majority of the women have been successful in some field before going into defense work. They know nothing of the tools and equipment with which they work, and they become despondent easily. 

Every Job Important 

Many of the women have to learn to take supervision. They must learn to withstand routine and noise. Women counsellors must oftentimes convince women workers that every job, although seemingly insignificant, is as essential to production as a job on the final assembly line. 

Counsellors say that women with enough stick-to-it-iveness to stay with the job about eight months become accustomed to it, learn its importance and enjoy it. 

Unimportant as it may seem to an outsider, many women find it difficult to adjust themselves to Boeing regulations on clothing. It takes good sportsmanship on the part of the women workers to give up their street-length dresses, toe-less shows, jewelry and loose hair-dos and don plain slacks, hair nets, low-heeled shoes and goggles in the interest of safety. And it takes good salesmanship on the part of the counsellors to enforce the rules. 

Many working mothers have faced a major problem in trying to work and at the same time take care of their home responsibilities. The advisors do all they can to protect the home and at the same time save the worker for industry, by helping to adjust household routines to working hours. 

Elizabeth Downs is women’s counsellor at Boeing. Herself a product of the war training school, she understands the problems of Boeing’s women workers. Laura Shannon, who for many years volunteered her services as an advisor to women workers, still has a part-time job of counseling-in addition to her work in the employment department of the personnel division. These two counsellors are assisted by the women supervisors of plant protection. 

World War II Production at Beech Aircraft Corporation in 1942; Walter H. Beech and Olive Ann Beech view wartime production lines. View shows interior of Plant I at Beech Aircraft Corporation.

Wichita State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives; wsu_ms97-02.3.9.1

By the numbers:

Wichita’s Population Growth: April, 1940 – July, 1941

• Stearman (Boeing): 5,250; Beech: 3,700; Cessna: 700

• Total for families of employees: 7,720

• Population boost from aircraft plants: 17,370

• Population boost from other lines: 4,500

• Total population increase for Wichita: 21,870

Source: Wichita Eagle, July 6, 1941, p.2

Aircraft produced:

Boeing: 1,644 B-29 Super Fortresses and 8,584 Kaydet Trainers

Beech: 7,415 military Beechcrafts

Cessna: 5,359 T-50 military Bobcat trainers and 750 gliders

Culver Aircraft: 2,448 radio- controlled, pilotless aircraft

Boeing’s Plant 2 cafeteria served 15,000 hot meals a day at 28 cents per meal!

Source: The Wichita Eagle, 1941-1950: “War years: Stoking the home fires;” January 29, 2011

Quotations to consider:

Population gains: “Confirmation of the fact that Wichita’s population increase has been rapid during this period is found in the fact that the list of newcomers has averaged 22 new families a week since January 1. This list fails to take any account of single men who come to the city.” - Wichita Eagle, July 6, 1941, p.2

Women in Industry: “Her business is to be efficient, intelligent and to add her bit to as many planes as possible. She’s a woman out to get her man, but this time the ‘man’ is the enemy.”

• Betty Barker, Boeing employee, quoted in “Boeing Girls will Tog out in Coveralls” in Wichita Evening Eagle, Thu, Mar 26, 1942, p. 5

Student Activities:

Questions for Reading 1, Numbers, Quotations, and Photos 1 & 2

1. Why was the production of B-29 Superfortresses at the Wichita Boeing plant important? What milestone was met in this article?
2. Why was the Superfortress covered in $10,000?
3. What was another type of plane produced at Boeing? What was its role, and how many had been produced in Wichita at the time?
4. Consider “By the Numbers” and the first “Quotation to consider.” How did the aviation industry impact the local population?

Questions for Reading 2

1. At the time of the writing, what percentage of workers were women at Beech Aircraft company?
2. How are the local women workers described? How does the Newspaper Photo (in gallery) support this description?
3. The role of Olive Ann Beech is described in the article as one of the company’s principal executives. She is also pictured in photo 5. Why do you think she was a “constant encouragement” to women workers?

Questions for Reading 3

1. What services did Boeing's counselor service offer to women working at their Wichita plants?
2. How did Boeing counselors address the challenge of helping women workers realize their competence despite their lack of experience in defense work?
3. What were some adjustments women workers had to make to routines, like clothing and at home?
4. When considering the goal of retaining a trained workforce that included women, do you think the counseling program was a helpful way to do so? Why or why not?

Lesson Closing:

Using details from across the readings and lesson, answer the essential question:
How was the home front aviation industry in Wichita a key contributor to the efforts of the United States and its Allies?

Extensions

B-29 Superfortress Plane Today (Media)

See footage of a B-29 Superfortress plane, “Doc,” in action in this local news clip (4:22).

See views of the plane during a test flight and hear more about the local connections. The bomber was restored by local volunteers and is at the Kansas Aviation Museum, one of only two that remains from those produced by Boeing during the war. 

Women war workers in local sports (Reading)

From a War Worker

Wichita Evening Eagle, Friday May 12, 1944, p.6

Seen downtown yesterday: Ruth Needels, Beach second shift employee. Miss Needels resides at 226 Laura and has lived in this city for six months. Before coming here she was employed at an ammunition plant in Des Moines, Ia. Her hometown is Nash, Okla. Miss Needels, who is an outside man at Beech in the sheetmetal department as a skinner on the nose of the plane, has been nicknamed ‘Sarie’ by her fellow workers. She likes sports of all kinds and at present in her spare time she is playing soft ball on the Beech women’s team. ‘I’m waiting for the boys to come back before I make any plans for after the war,’ she said. 
 

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Ladies Defeat Men: Coleman Lamp Women Roll 2,442 Pins and Win Three Games

Wichita Evening Eagle, March 10, 1941, p. 6

Coleman Lamp Ladies team, aided by a 70-pin handicap, Sunday defeated the Picar men’s team three games in a special match at the Playmore Alleys. The ladies rolled 814, 838 and 790 for a very creditable 2,442 compared to the men’s scores of 794, 793, 760 – 2,347. Morton had 193 and 529 to lead the men and Keplinger of the ladies had high 30 with 487. Nicholson rolled a 185 for high 10. 

Reflection:

Why were recreational opportunities, like sports, important for wartime home front workers? Why is the inclusion of women in these opportunities meaningful?

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This lesson was written by Sarah Nestor Lane, an educator and consultant with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, funded by the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.