1941 | Transportation
Transportation
British flyer Amy Johnson drowns January 6 at age 37 when her plane ditches in the Thames estuary.
The first British Gloster-Whittle E. 29/39 turbojet test flown May 15 has an engine designed by Frank Whittle (see 1939); air flowing through the front of the engine is compressed and mixed with fuel before igniting in a continuous explosion, the expanding gases are ejected out the back, and the resulting 1,000 pounds of thrust is equal to that of the most powerful piston engines (see Me 262, 1942).
The Liberty ship Patrick Henry launched September 1 at Richmond, Calif., is the first of some 2,700 such vessels that will be built in the next few years. Naval architect and marine engineer William F. Gibbs, now 54, has designed the standardized cargo carrier, and contractor Henry J. Kaiser has persuaded President Roosevelt that he can mass-produce the freighters quickly, Roosevelt has overridden objections by the Maritime Commission and East Coast shipbuilders that ships welded together rather than riveted pose hazards in heavy seas, but it can take as long as 4 years to complete a ship using conventional methods, and losses to U-boats on the North Atlantic have heightened demand for bottoms that can deliver food, military equipment, and other goods to the beleaguered British. Kaiser late last year acquired 80 acres of swampland south of San Francisco, used earthmoving equipment to turn it into a shipyard, hired hundreds of welders, machinists, pipefitters, electricians, and other workers, and employed prefabrication techniques to complete what FDR calls an "ugly duckling" in 244 days. Her noisy steam engine gives her a speed of only 11 knots fully loaded, but she can carry up to 17 million tons of cargo. "Hurry-up Henry" establishes a chain of seven Pacific Coast shipyards north of Richmond, Calif., at the outbreak of the Pacific war in December and uses assembly line methods to set new speed records, pitting one yard against the other to speed production (see 1942).
Engineer Stephen Bechtel receives word that the Maritime Commission needs 60 cargo ships for America's allies; Bechtel has had no experience building ships, but he organizes shipyards that will build up to 20 ships per month in the next 4 years, producing a total of some 560 vessels.
Willys Motors and Ford Motor Company begin mass production of Jeeps for use by the U.S. Army and Allied forces (see 1940). The Willys MB design is accepted as standard in the summer and Willys submits a bid of less than $750 per vehicle, both companies are awarded contracts (Willys is required to turn over blueprints to Ford; American Bantam is given a conciliatory contract for Jeep trailers), Willys begins producing 125 vehicles per day in November, and the two companies will turn out nearly 649,000 Jeeps in the next 5 years, with Willys completing a new Jeep every 80 seconds at the peak of its production. The rugged, four-wheel-drive vehicle can have its wheels changed to run on railroad tracks, its four-cylinder engine has a capacity of 63 horsepower, and it can pull up to 56 tons of freight on a track; its name comes from letters used by Ford, "G" meaning Government, "P" meaning 80-inch wheelbase(see 1945).
The Lincoln Continental introduced by Ford Motor Company's Edsel Ford is the sleekest U.S. car yet made (see 1939).
U.S. auto production reaches 3.3 million, and there are 32.6 million cars on the U.S. road, up from 20 million in 1927 (see 1950).
U.S. motortruck production reaches 4.85 million, up from 3.5 million in 1931 (see 1951).
English automaker Herbert Austin dies at his Lackay Grange home in Worcestershire May 23 at age 75. Remembered as the Henry Ford of Britain, Austin has built a company that produced London taxicabs in addition to its Baby Austins and will make Austin-Healey sports cars after the war; automobile pioneer Louis Chevrolet dies at his Detroit home June 6 at age 62 (he is buried at Indianapolis).
The first U.S. diesel freight locomotives go into service for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (see General Motors, 1935). Built by GM's Electromotive Division, the new 5,400-horsepower diesels eliminate water problems in desert country and reduce hotbox problems on downgrades with a dynamic braking system. Running time between Chicago and California drops from 6 days to 4, with only five brief stops en route, and the sound of the steam engine whistle begins to fade from the American scene (see 1957).
President Roosevelt establishes an Office of Defense Transportation December 18.