The American Automobile Industry in World War Two
An American Auto Industry Heritage Tribute by David D Jackson

Overview      Lansing Michigan in World War Two   The U.S. Auto Industry at the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944    The U.S. Auto Industry and the B-29 Bomber   U.S. Auto Industry Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   The Complete listing of All Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   Sherman Tanks of the American Auto Industry   Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry    M26 Pershing Tanks of the American Auto Industry   M36 Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry   Serial Numbers for WWII Tanks built by the American Auto Industry   Surviving LCVP Landing Craft    WWII Landing Craft Hull Numbers   Airborne Extra-Light Jeep Photos  The American Auto Industry vs. the German V-1 in WWII   American Auto Industry-Built Anti-Aircraft Guns in WWII   VT Proximity Manufacturers of WWII   World War One Era Motor Vehicles   National Museum of Military Vehicles  
Revisions   Links

 Automobile and Body Manufacturers:  American Bantam Car Company   Briggs Manufacturing Company   Checker Car Company   Chrysler Corporation   Crosley Corporation   Ford Motor Car Company   General Motors Corporation   Graham-Paige Motors Corporation   Hudson
Motor Car Company   Murray Corporation of America   Nash-Kelvinator   Packard Motor Car Company      Studebaker    Willys-Overland Motors

General Motors Divisions:  AC Spark Plug   Aeroproducts   Allison   Brown-Lipe-Chapin   Buick   Cadillac   Chevrolet   Cleveland Diesel   Delco Appliance   Delco Products   Delco Radio   Delco-Remy   Detroit Diesel   Detroit Transmission   Electro-Motive   Fisher Body   Frigidaire   GM Proving Grounds   GM of Canada   GMC   GMI   Guide Lamp   Harrison Radiator   Hyatt Bearings   Inland   Moraine Products   New Departure   Oldsmobile   Packard Electric   Pontiac   Saginaw Malleable Iron   Saginaw Steering Gear   Southern California Division   Rochester Products   Ternstedt Manufacturing Division   United Motors Service   Vauxhall Motors

 Indiana Companies:  Bailey Products Corporation   Chrysler Kokomo Plant   Continental Steel Corporation  Converto Manufacturing    Cummins Engine Company   Diamond Chain and Manufacturing Company   Delta Electric Company   Durham Manufacturing Company   Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation   General Electric Kokomo Plant   Haynes Stellite Company   Hercules Body Company   Horton Manufacturing Company   Howe Fire Apparatus   International Machine Tool Company   J.D. Adams Company   Kokomo Spring Company   Magnavox  
Muncie Gear Works   Pierce Governor Company   Portland Forge and Foundry   Reliance Manufacturing Company-Kokomo Plant   Reliance Manufacturing Company-Washington Plant   Republic Aviation Corporation - Indiana Division   Ross Gear and Tool Company   S.F. Bowser & Co.   Sherrill Research Corporation   Sullivan Machinery Company   Tokheim Oil Tank and Pump Company   Warner Gear   Wayne Pump Company   Wayne Works

Commercial Truck and Fire Apparatus Manufacturers:  American LaFrance   Autocar  
Biederman Motors Corporation   Brockway Motor Company   Detroit General   Diamond T   Duplex Truck Company   Federal Motor Truck   Four Wheel Drive Auto Company(FWD)   International Harvester   John Bean   Mack Truck   Marmon-Herrington Company   Michigan Power Shovel Company   Oshkosh Motor Truck Corporation   Pacific Car and Foundry   "Quick-Way" Truck Shovel Company  Reo Motor Car Company  Seagrave Fire Apparatus   Sterling Motor Truck Company    Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation   White Motor Company

Aviation Companies:  Abrams Instrument Corporation    Frankfort Sailplane Company   Hughes Aircraft Company   Kellett Aviation Corporation   Laister-Kauffman Aircraft Corporation   Naval Aircraft Factory   P-V Engineering Forum, Inc.    Rudolf Wurlitzer Company-DeKalb Division  Schweizer Aircraft Corporation   Sikorsky Division of United Aircraft Corporation   St. Louis Aircraft Corporation   Timm Aircraft Corporation

Other World War Two Manufacturers: 
Air King Products   Allis-Chalmers   American Car and Foundry   American Locomotive   American Stove Company   Annapolis Yacht Yard  
Andover Motors Company   Badger Meter Manufacturing Company   B.F. Goodrich   Baker War Industries   Baldwin Locomotive Works   Blood Brothers Machine Company   Boyertown Auto Body Works   Briggs & Stratton   Burke Electric Company   Caterpillar   Cheney Bigelow Wire Works   Centrifugal Fusing   Chris-Craft   Clark Equipment Company   Cleaver-Brooks Company   Cleveland Tractor Company   Continental Motors   Cushman Motor Works   Crocker-Wheeler   Dail Steel Products   Detroit Wax Paper Company   Detrola   Engineering & Research Corporation   Farrand Optical Company   Federal Telephone and Radio Corp.   Firestone Tire and Rubber Company   Fruehauf Trailer Company   Fuller Manufacturing   Galvin Manufacturing   Gemmer Manufacturing Company   General Railway Signal Company   Gerstenslager Company   Gibson Guitar   Gibson Refrigerator Company   Goodyear   Hall-Scott   Hanson Clutch and Machinery Company   Harley-Davidson   Harris-Seybold-Potter   Herreshoff Manufacturing Company   Higgins Industries    Highway Trailer Corporation  Hill Diesel Company   Holland Hitch Company   Homelite Company   Horace E. Dodge Boat and Plane Corporation   Huffman Manufacturing   Indian Motorcycle   Ingersoll Steel and Disk   Iron Fireman Manufacturing Company   John Deere   Johnson Automatics Manufacturing Company   Kimberly-Clark   Kohler Company   Kold-Hold Company   Landers, Frary & Clark   Le Roi Company  Lima Locomotive Works   Lundberg Screw Products   MacKenzie Muffler Company   Massey-Harris   Matthews Company   McCord Radiator & Mfg. Company   Metal Mouldings Corporation   Miller Printing Machinery Company   Morse Instrument Company   Motor Products Corporation   Motor Wheel Corporation   National Cash Resgister Company   Novo Engine Company   O'Keefe & Merritt Company   Olofsson Tool and Die Company   Oneida Ltd   Otis Elevator   Owens Yacht   Pressed Steel Car Company   Pressed Steel Tank Company   Queen City Manufacturing Company   R.G. LeTourneau   Richardson Boat Company   R.L. Drake Company   St. Clair Rubber Company   Samson United Corporation   Shakespeare Company   Sight Feed Generator Company   Simplex Manufacturing Company   Steel Products Engineering Company   St. Louis Car Company   Twin Disc Company   Victor Adding Machine Company   Vilter Manufacturing Company   Wells-Gardner   W.L. Maxson Corporation   W.W. Boes Company   Westfield Manufacturing Company   York-Hoover Body Company   York-Shipley, Inc.   Youngstown Steel Door Company  
   

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Grand Blanc Tank Arsenal Built Tanks and Tank Destroyers
Grand Blanc built M4A2 Sherman Tank Photos   Grand Blanc Built M4A3 Tank Photos   Grand Blanc M10 Tank Destroyer Photos

Lansing, Michigan Fisher Body Plant - General Motors Corporation in World War Two
Recognizing a Company from my Hometown that contributed to winning World War Two
Lansing, MI
1922-2007
Rest in Peace

Gone but not Forgotten!!!

This page updated 12-24-2021.
Other Lansing Companies that contributed to winning World War Two

Lansing Fisher Body had an important place in the first 23 years of my life.  My parents met while working in the plant after World War Two.  My father worked there six days a week on his particular job in the plant while my sister and I were growing up,  He worked not only Saturdays and Sundays, but holidays as well.  He spent a lot of time in "The Shop", as he called it.  It dominated our lives because he was gone so much.

My family's association with Lansing Fisher Body started with my grandfather going to work there sometime after 1937, when he had been a participant in the Lansing Reo sit-down strike.  More than likely, he was hired into Fisher Body because he was a musician.  Fisher Body had a brass band in which he could play.  Reo was not at all in good financial standing, so moving to a GM plant was more secure for him.  Playing in the Reo Brass Band was the reason he was hired into 'The Reo'.  However, with the United States entrance into World War Two in 1941, he lost his job when automotive production stopped at Lansing Fisher Body.  Most of the workers were laid off until war work could be brought into the Lansing plant.  (There is more on this history of the plant below.)  Actually, for my grandfather, this probably worked out for the better, as he got a job at the Nash-Kelvinator plant propeller plant as a foreman in charge of blade balancing.  As the new job was within a short walk of his house, he was able to save on gasoline and tires which were both rationed during the war.  After the end of the conflict, he returned to Lansing Fisher Body and retired from there.

On May 23, 1942, after traveling 400 miles from his hometown in Marquette, MI, my father walked into the Lansing Fisher Body plant and was hired.  How did this happen while thousands of previous workers were laid off?  This is a classic case of "it's not what you know, but who you know!"  My father was looking for a better job, and there was not much opportunity in Marquette.  His high school football coach knew someone at Lansing Fisher Body and was able to arrange the job for him.  My father therefore came down to Lansing and hired into Plant Protection, which had a different union than the UAW that represented the majority of the workers.  Plant Protection was used by management to place persons they wanted into the plant.  In later years, plant management would offer these positions to UAW Local 602 committeemen who were giving management headaches. That way it would not have to deal with them anymore.  Several of the committeemen took the positions.  I worked with two of them during several of my summers in the plant.  On October 6, 1942, my father was inducted into the Army. 

Sometime after my father left for the service, my mother came to work in the plant as a salaried clerk in the Materials Control Department.  Her job responsibility was to keep track of the B-29 components being made in the plant, including engine nacelles and control surfaces.  After having several depression-era low paying jobs after graduating from Lansing Central High School, doing war work at Fisher Body was a great opportunity for her.

My father returned to work after separating from the Army on February 6, 1946.  At some point, my parents met while working in the plant, and were married.  My mother did what was the norm during that era.  She became a stay-at-home-mother and housewife.  My father stayed at Lansing Fisher Body until he retired on August 1, 1976.


Lansing Fisher Body circa 1973.  This is how I remember the plant; and how it looked during the "Golden Years" of General Motors during the 1950s, 60s and early 70s.  It was because of this plant that my sister and I always had food to eat and clothes to wear.  Because my father was on Plant Protection, he worked through several GM strikes while I was growing up.  While going to college, both my sister and I had summer jobs in the plant.  During the 1960s, if your mother or father worked in the plant, you could count on a summer job while in college.  Also, Michigan State football players who needed summer jobs were given special consideration.  There were several such athletes in the plant during the summers I worked there.


This is the Fisher Body Coach Emblem that was on the south side of the Lansing Fisher Body Plant facing Michigan Ave and Lansing Sexton High School.  Now the emblem resides in the RE Olds Museum in downtown Lansing.  Author's Photo.

Early History:  In the photos below, not only does the plant grow over time, but the neighborhood to the east of the plant does as well.


The building that later became the Lansing Fisher Body Plant was built in 1922 as an automobile assembly plant for the Durant Motor Company.  The plant was built on 152 acres, and employed 3,000 workers when it opened.  This aerial looking north-west shows what the plant looked like in 1922 after it was built.  The plant was far smaller than it was when razed in 2007, as there were many additions over the years.  Building One was the nomenclature for the long building facing Verlinden Avenue.  The empty area on the south or left end of the photo would be the location of a post WWII two story addition known as Building 3X.  It contained the body shop on the first floor and final trim shop on the second.  The 1928 photo below shows the addition going up on the north end of the building that is a parking lot in this photo.

Verlinden Avenue is out in front, and Michigan Avenue is the road along the bottom of the photo.  Three houses were built across the street from the plant, and trees have been planted in the new neighborhood. When I was a child. this area was all houses.


This photo, taken between 1922 and 1928, is looking south down Verlinden Ave. while the plant was still part of Durant Motors.  The trees at the south end of Verlinden Ave. are where my high school, J.W. Sexton, would be built during World War Two.


This 1926 Durant Star was built by the Durant Motor Company in what later became the Lansing Fisher Body Plant.  The Star was the low priced line of vehicles produced by Durant, for which production ran from 1922 to 1928 at Lansing.  This particular vehicle is on display and owned by the RE Olds Museum in Lansing, MI.  It is an un-restored original.  Author's photo.


How cool is this?  For as far as can be seen looking north up Verlinden Avenue, there is a double row of Durant automobiles lined up in front of the plant.  Each car had a driver that drove it to its new owner.  Photo added 12-24-2021. 


The date was July 17, 1928.  Photo added 12-24-2021. 


 A year earlier, on July 30, 1927, at least nineteen Durant Star Sixes were lined up in front of the Durant Motor Company on Verlinden Avenue in Lansing, MI.  These vehicles were all on their way to Chicago, IL.  Photo added 12-24-2021.


This 1928 photo shows the addition on the north end of the plant and Building One.  The stairs lead up to what would become the "front offices" for the rest of the plant's existence.


This newspaper photo shows the plant in 1936, one year after General Motors purchased it for Fisher Body.  Prior to the purchase of this plant, Fisher Body built its bodies for Olds in leased space in the Oldsmobile plant.  At this time, the plant was 1,000,000 square feet, had six miles of conveyor, and supplied all of the Oldsmobile bodies. There was not a direct road between the two plants, so a road was built between them.  This would be Clare Street and Olds Avenue.


This is the Fisher Body Lansing Plant before World War Two.  This may have been taken at the same time as the photo above.  The 1928 addition on the north or right end of the photo is easily visible along with several other additions within the center of the plant complex.  During summers while in college, I worked in this building.  One of my jobs was at the middle of the section at the right end (north) of the photo on the second floor.  There were two entrances along the front facing Verlinden Avenue.  One entrance towards the north (on the right) was what we called "the front office" for the executives and some of the office workers.  The other entrance, in the middle of the plant at the intersection of the two buildings facing the Verlinden Ave., was for the workers like my father.  The long buildings in the far upper left were known as "cut and sew."  Seat cushions and interior trim parts were made there until the late 1950's, when they became known as "the cushion room."  "Cut and sew" was moved to another plant and the seat cushions were then assembled there.

On a related note, General Motors purchased the plant behind and across the railroad tracks from RE Olds in 1940.  It was originally built as a foundry in 1920 to hopefully provide castings for General Motors.  It went bankrupt several times and was standing empty when GM purchased it.  It became Olds Plant 2 and was converted into a forge plant to manufacture the 75mm and 155mm artillery shells that Oldsmobile produced during World War Two.  The Fisher Body Power House supplied the steam for Olds Plant Two.

World War Two: 


The March to the Michigan State Capital building by 3,000 Fisher Body workers on January 20, 1942.

I had seen reference to this march of Lansing Fisher Body workers in my early research on the plant but was not able to obtain this photo until June of 2015.  The date of this photo is January 20, 1942.  It was taken at the south end of the Lansing Fisher Body Plant on Verlinden Avenue.  It shows a small portion of the 3,000 Fisher Body employees starting a march to the State Capital a mile away to the east.  The reason for the march was to protest the impending job losses.  Auto production in the United States was coming to an end in February 1942.  The workers were concerned for their jobs, because as of this point in time there were no plans, or at least no plans that the workers knew of, for war production in the plant.  It was 44 days since the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  The Arsenal of Democracy, for which the Lansing plant was later an important part, was just starting to come to life.

The worker's concerns were not without merit.  In February 1942, 500 workers were laid off from this plant.  No doubt some of those laid off were in this photo.  When the laid off workers applied for work at The Reo in Lansing, only 95 were hired.  Meanwhile, Reo hired 400 women who had not previously worked in a factory.

Also, some of the men in this photo may not have known it, but worrying about a job was not necessary.  Uncle Sam found jobs for them carrying M1 rifles after they were drafted into the US Army.  One of the big issues for all companies during World War Two was the constant drafting of experienced workers into the Army.

My grandfather was employed at the plant in January of 1942 and he is somewhere in this group of workers.

There are several interesting items to note in this photo.  One worker is carrying a sign that states "C.V. dept against the world".  Before the advent of air conditioning along with "flow through ventilation" being standard on vehicles, automobiles and trucks had corner vents in the front side windows for ventilation.  The corner vents were known as C.V.s in the auto industry.

It is January in Michigan and there is no snow on the ground.

Another worker has a sign that says "500 planes per day."  This is a reference to the plan that UAW president Walter Reuther proposed to keep auto plants running and workers in jobs.  Walter Reuther proposed this over a year earlier when he felt that the unused capacity of the auto industry could be harnessed to make 500 metal fighter aircraft and continue to produce automobiles at the same time.  Mr. Reuther, along with his automobile company management contemporaries, totally underestimated the complexity of building not only fighters, but any aircraft during World War Two.  Lansing Fisher Body would go on to produce components for both the XP-75 fighter and B-29 bomber, while the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors would produce 5,837 FM-1 and FM-2 Wildcat Fighters for the U.S. Navy over a two year period.

Note the pavement of Verlinden Avenue.  It is all hand-laid brick.  Eighty years later, one may ask why was it brick?  Why was it hand laid?  This was common practice during the Great Depression, as many projects to put unemployed men to work were to pave roads with brick, as this was labor intensive.  My grandfather did not lay the brick on Verlinden Avenue, but he did lay the brick on South Cedar Street in Lansing.  That public works project put him back to work during the Depression.

And speaking of the brick of Verlinden Avenue, I can still remember driving down the street and hearing the roar of the bricks under the tires, as I did my first of three road trips during Driver's Training at Sexton High School in the summer of 1965.  I was the first of the three students in an Oldsmobile 88 to drive that day.  Mr. James Bond (Imagine having this name in the mid-1960s!) was the instructor, and he had to slow me down a bit, as I was not paying any attention to my speed as I went down Verlinden. 

Some years later the bricks were paved over with asphalt. 



Lansing Fisher Body received the Army-Navy "E" Award in June 1945.

Lansing Fisher Body World War Two Products:  The plant produced $43 million in war products between 1942 and 1945, divided into three different product groups.  The aircraft group consisted of B-29 control surfaces and engine nacelles, aircraft tail sections, and XP-75 aircraft parts and assemblies.  The armor group was made up of M4, M18, M24, M26, and experimental tank parts.  The last group was carriages for (2,359) 90mm anti-aircraft guns, and components for 5 inch naval guns mounts.

Very little information is available on what the plant specifically built during World War Two.  The following two sources have provided what information I have been able to find. 

From "Fisher Body Craftsmanship Goes to War":  B-29, XP-75 aircraft parts and assemblies.  M4, M8, M24, and experimental tank parts.  90mm anti-aircraft gun parts and five-inch naval gun parts.  On page 35, it states:  "In September (1943) Cadillac requested further assistance on the M24 in welding a number of major hull assemblies.  The work was assigned to the Fisher Body plant in Lansing."

From "UAW Local 602 records":  90mm gun carriages, tail sections for aircraft, gun mounts, hulls for tank destroyers, small parts for Army aircraft.  First Navy contract was for five-inch naval gun mounts.  Parts for XP-75 aircraft.

The Lansing Fisher Body Plant World War Two Chronology:  As determined from Local 602 records.

1942-1943:  Aircraft Tail sections, gun mounts (90mm), hulls for tank destroyers, small parts for aircraft, parts for XP-75 "Eagle".  It is unknown for which aircraft types the tail sections or small parts were built.  They could have been one and the same for the XP-75.  The hulls for the tank destroyers were most likely for the M10 "Wolverine" being built at Fisher Body Grand Blanc, MI.  Production of the M10 lasted from September 1942 to December1943.  Lansing could have also worked on the M-18 Hellcat built by Buick from July 1943 to October 1944.  Grand Blanc built many of the hulls and turrets for the M-18, and could very well have sub-contracted some of the work to Lansing.

1942-1945:  B-29 control surfaces and nacelles, five inch naval gun mounts, assemblies for various type tanks.

The Flint Journal announced on June 6, 1945 that work on the B-29 and the heavy tank project would cease at the Lansing Fisher Body Plant at the end of July 1945, in order to make way for the return of automotive production.  Of interest is that the heavy tank was the M26 Pershing, which is not noted in either the Local 602 or Fisher Body documentation.  The Lansing M26 work would have been for Fisher Body Grand Blanc, which was building the tank.


The first war contract for Lansing Fisher Body in 1942 was for 90mm anti-aircraft gun carriages like the one seen here.  Author's photo added 11-26-2020.


   The plant had 4,500 employees before the war and only 600 to 1,700 during 1942.  The plant was idle for several months before the work for this project came in.  The parts made at Lansing Fisher Body then went to Fisher Body Pontiac.  There, 2,359 of the weapons were produced.  Author's photo added 11-26-2020. 


Lansing assembled the vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, tail cone, rudder, elevator, trim tabs, ailerons, and flaps for the Fisher Body XP-75 and P-75A.    105,000 square feet, or 10% of the plant's area, was allocated for this work.  This photo shows the only surviving P-75A at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  This was taken when it was in the former annex hangar.  Author's photo.


Only (8) XP-75s and (6) P-75s were built during World War Two.  While only fourteen total airframes were built, Lansing and other Fisher Body plants were planning and producing for a high production run.  Many more than fourteen sets of components were built.  In 2015 the Fisher P-75A was moved to the main museum complex.   Author's photo added 2-15-2021.


This photo shows the horizontal and vertical stabilizers along with the rudder.  The small trim tab can be seen at the bottom of the rudder.  They and the elevators were all assembled at Lansing Fisher Body.   Author's photo added 2-15-2021.


 The Lansing Fisher Body-built ailerons and flaps can be seen In this photo.  The ailerons are nearest the end of the wing.  Author's photo added 2-15-2021.


Lansing built parts for the M4 Sherman.  It is unknown which parts were made in the plant.  It can be assumed that whatever was made in the plant was sent to the Fisher Body Tank Arsenal in Grand Blanc, MI, 60 miles away.  Of the 49,234 Sherman tanks built by ten different manufacturers, this particular Grand Blanc-built M4A3 Sherman is on display in downtown Bastogne, Belgium.  Bastogne was the center of the fighting during the famous Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.  The road intersection in the town where this M4A3 now resides was an important road junction for the German battle plan to be successful.  The road junction never fell into enemy hands; and this tank was one of many that helped the 82nd Airborne defend the town.  It was knocked out of action during the battle and then put on display by the residents of Bastogne.  Author's Photo.


 This M4A2 is the oldest Fisher Body-built tank in North America, and is on display at Victoria Park in London, Ontario.  It came off the Grand Blanc assembly line in September 1942.  It landed with the Canadian Army at Normandy, and then fought its way across Europe until the end of the war.  It survived the many battles it was in, and then came back to Canada.  Lansing Fisher Body may have built components for this tank in 1942.  Author's Photo.


Grand Blanc also built the M4A2 Sherman, as seen here in downtown Vancouver, BC.  Lansing could have also helped build this late model Sherman tank.  Photo courtesy of David Jackson, Jr.


This Fisher Body-built M10 "Wolverine" tank destroyer is on display at the Patton Museum at Fort Knox, KY.  Author's photo.


The Cadillac-built M24 Chaffee also had parts in it made by Lansing Fisher Body.  Work was assigned to Lansing in September 1943 for the welding of hull assembly components.  This particular Chaffee is actually a combat veteran from the Korean War, where it served with the US Marines. It was captured by the Chinese, and then recaptured by the US Marines.  Author's photo from the former Ropkey Armor Museum in Crawfordsville, IN.


This is a Fisher Body Grand Blanc-built M26 "Pershing" heavy tank.  At the end of the war, Lansing was involved with the heavy tank program until the end of July 1945.   Author's photo added 11-10-2017.

 
Lansing's only Navy contract was to fabricate portions of the five inch naval gun mount.  The Fisher Body plant in Pontiac did the final assembly on the mounts.  This five inch gun can be seen at the USS Sullivans at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park in Buffalo, NY.  Author's photo added 11-10-2017.

The B-29 Program at Lansing Fisher Body:  This is what my mother worked on.  It was her responsibility in Material Control to keep track of the assemblies being built, to assure they would be shipped to the aircraft assembly plants on time.

Originally, Lansing allocated 195,800 square feet for the production of ailerons, rudders, and elevators.  This was 18% of the 1,066,667 square feet of the plant.

Lansing B-29 Project Scheduled Production
As of February 1944 
B-29 Assembly Plant Boeing-Renton, WA Boeing-Wichita, KS Bell-Marietta, GA Martin-Omaha, NE Totals
Nacelles (With Cleveland #1) 2,700 1,464 400 200 4,764
Ailerons, Rudders, and Elevators 300   900   1,200

Note that Lansing and Cleveland #1 supplied nacelles to all four B-29 assembly plants. 


This is the B-29 Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.  It is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum in Virginia.  Of significance is that Fisher Body supplied the engine nacelles to the Martin Omaha, NE plant that built the Silverplate nuclear bombers.  Both Fisher Body Lansing and Cleveland Plant One built B-29 engine nacelles for the B-29s built in Omaha.  Therefore, there is the possibility that Lansing built the engine nacelles on this aircraft.  

Lansing built ailerons for the B-29, which is the control surface at the bottom of the photo.  Author's photo.


This photo gives a better look at the Fisher Body-built engine nacelles on the Enola Gay.  They were the most complex part of the B-29 after the forward fuselage section and contained over 1,300 subassemblies and weighed over a ton.  Author's photo.


Lansing built rudders and elevators for the B-29 bomber.  Author's photo added 11-26-2020.


These women are working on a B-29 fabric covered rudder on the Lansing Fisher Body plant floor.  The woman on the left is applying tape over the stitching that holds the fabric to the aluminum superstructure.  The stitching down the center has already been taped over.  Once this process is complete, a water-proof varnish is applied and then cured. 

While the B-29 was the most complex and advanced aircraft of the World War Two era, it still had fabric covered ailerons, elevators, and rudders.  In combat, the fabric actually had an advantage over aluminum covered control surfaces.  When enemy shells went through the fabric, it did now leave any jagged edges like on the metal ones, which could then jam the controls.


In this photo, both men and women are working on the rudders in Lansing.  They can be identified as rudders due to the size of the cut-outs for the vertical trim tabs.  The completed rudders were then sent to the Fisher Body Plant #2 in Cleveland, OH for assembly into the vertical stabilizer.


This shows a larger section of the plant floor but is the same photo as above. 


This photo of a B-29 rudder produced at Lansing Fisher Body shows its size compared to the two workers. Photo added 11-26-2020.


 The workers In this photo are working on a B-29 elevator.  Photo added 12-25-2016. 


A completed B-29 aileron is in the bottom half of the photo and a B-29 elevator is shown in the inset.  Both of these photos were taken at Lansing Fisher Body.  Photo added 11-26-2020.


The tape covered areas where the fabric was stitched to the ribs of the elevator can be seen on this B-29.  Author's photo.

The Lansing B-29 Nacelle Program:  Fisher Body committed to the United States Army Air Force for 290 B-29 ship-sets per month in 1945, which is 1,160 individual nacelles per month.  Fisher Body Cleveland Plant 1 had the capability of producing 200 ship-sets and would reach that in January 1945.  Starting in December 1943, Lansing was also tooled up to produce 90 ship-sets, or 360 individual nacelles per month.  Production began in May 1944 with full production being reached in July 1945.  At full production, Lansing produced 31% of the nacelles built by Fisher Body.

60% of the Lansing plant was committed to the production of the B-29 nacelles.  This was 640,000 square feet.  The tooling for the B-29 nacelles in Lansing totaled 946 jigs, fixtures, master gauges, and master plates which required 183,958 hours to build.

Lansing did not receive its Army-Navy "E" Award until June 1945.  It could very well be that it received the award due to producing more B-29 nacelles ahead of the original schedule.


This is the only known photo of B-29 engine nacelles coming down the monorail assembly line at Lansing Fisher Body.  It is unknown what percentage of the 13,772 Fisher Body-built B-29 engine nacelles were made in Lansing. My mother's responsibility was to come out to this assembly line and then verify by job number that it was on schedule to be shipped to Omaha or one of the three other B-29 final assembly plants in operation during World War Two.


This master gauge is one of the 946 pieces of equipment that needed to be built for Lansing to go into B-29 nacelle production.  Photo added 11-26-2020.

Post-World War Two:



Oldsmobile Plant Number Two in 1945.  The photo is looking east with Lansing Fisher Body behind it.  The newly completed J.W. Sexton High School, that I would attend 20 years later, is located in the right hand corner.  The gymnasium is visible on the south end.  The Fisher Body plant's power house supplied steam to both plants.  Downtown Lansing is in the distance through the smoky haze. 


Fisher Body Lansing in 1973.


This is a post-1975 photo looking south.  Verlinden Avenue is on the left.  J.W. Sexton Memorial Stadium can be seen to the south of the plant along with the high school track.  At this point, all of the additions to the plant have been made.


The Fisher Body Coach had been on the south side of building 3X since it was added in 1960.  Plant millwrights are removing both the sign and the name "Fisher Body" on August 1, 1985.  It then became the BOC Lansing Body Assembly Plant.

How times have changed.  The millwrights do not have any safety harnesses on in case they were to fall.  Today's safety protocols require harnesses for this type of job.  Today the work would be done from a bucket truck.

The travesty of eliminating Fisher Body did not have to happen!  In 1981 Roger Smith became Chairman of GM after being a bean counter for GM in New York City.  He wouldn't have known a body in white if one had been shoved up his... !  Well you know what I mean.  He was a disaster for GM.  He thought he was the smartest S.O.B on the face of earth.  While everyone could agree with the S.O.B part, only his mother thought he was the smartest.  And she only thought it true about half the time!  He was like a little banty rooster strutting around the GM barnyard, making lots of noise, but not knowing how to run the world's largest auto company.  It was his harebrained idea to take Fisher Body, the premier division in the company, destroy it, and combine it into other divisions. 

Instead of spending GM's money on new products and technology, he went out and bought other companies to try and fix the problems.  One of the worst purchases was that of computer software company EDS.  This was the ultimate train wreck, and caused dissention among the employees for years to come.  Along with EDS came its chairman, Ross Perot, who also thought he was the smartest S.O.B. on the face of the earth.  Because of this, he forgot for whom he was working for, and thought he was the person running General Motors. We ended up with two banty roosters strutting around the GM barnyard, squabbling with each other, and screwing things up.


After the Fisher Body name was gone, the plant was known as the Body Plant of Lansing Car Assembly.  The former Oldsmobile plant was final assembly.  This is the security gate after the modernization and expansion of the plant in 1975.  The original security gate was formerly a stand-alone building and was Gate 9.  The area to the east of this location is shown in the next photo.


This is what is left of the north end of the plant in 2012.  I used to have a work station where the rubble stands today, working on Olds Vista Cruiser station wagons on the second floor.  Author's Photo.


The south entrance on Verlinden Ave. was located where the slab of concrete protrudes into the grass.  Everyone who worked at the plant used this entrance to hire in, because the Personnel Department was located here.   One went down the steps, past security, and then up into Personnel.  Many of my family members, including both of my parents, my sister, and my grandfather, and I passed through this gate to get to work.  The plant was razed in 2007.  Author's Photo from 2012.


This photo shows strikers in front of the above described entrance.  Note that the bricks have not yet been paved over on Verlinden Avenue.  Photo courtesy of UAW 602.

1973 Lansing Fisher Body Open House Brochure


May "The Shop" Rest in Peace!

Other Lansing Companies that contributed to winning World War Two

 

 

 

 

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