Steel Products Engineering Company in World War Two
Springfield, OH
1908-1996
1955-1973 as the SPECO Division of Kelsey-Hayes Company
1973-1987 as part of Fruehauf Corporation
1987-1989 as part of Grabill Aerospace
1989-1996 as part of SNECMA

This page added 6-23-2022.

It is not very often that I find an Army-Navy "E" flag for a company for which I do a page.  In this particular case, I photographed this "E" flag two years before I wrote this page.  This Steel Products Engineering Company "E" flag is on display at The Heritage Center of the Clark County Historical Society in Springfield, OH.  Steel Products Engineering Company was the first company in Springfield, OH to win the "E" award for U.S. Army Air Corps production.  Author's photo.

This is the company's first flag, as it was awarded one star six months after this one was awarded.  This flag was presented to the company on July 28, 1944, "for the splendid turrets delivered by the thousands you have contributed to the magnificent records of our Flying Fortresses times without number."  These were the words of Brigadier General Orval Cook as he spoke to 3,000 persons gathered at the award ceremony.  The turrets General Cook was speaking of were the B-17 top deck turrets that was the main product of the company during World War Two.  Author's photo.  

Author's photo.

The Steel Products Engineering Company is one of the many unrecognized American industrial heroes that contributed to the winning of World War Two.  Its main World War Two product, but not its only product for the war effort, was the license-built Sperry Gyroscope Company's A-1, A-1A, A-1B, and A-1C B-17 top deck turret.  Steele Products Engineering is overlooked by historians due to the fact that Emerson Electric in St. Louis, MO also built the same turrets along with many other types of turrets in an immense factory dedicated to turret production.

 In 1908, Mr. Joe McAdams formed the Steel Products Engineering Company in Springfield, OH as a tool and die shop.  As time progressed, the company took on contract work and expanded its business into making special machinery and other industrial products.  In the 1920s and 1930s the company had contracts with both the War Department Air Corps and the U.S. Navy.  War Department contracts included the manufacture of aircraft propeller hubs in 1920, the manufacture of winches for airships in 1923, and several contracts in the late 1920s for the reconditioning of Liberty aircraft engines.  In the late 1930s the company had contracts from the Navy for generators, an auxiliary power unit, engine cylinder assemblies, and starter systems.  Steel Products Engineering Company was no stranger to contracting for different products when World War Two arrived.

In 1936 the company merged with Combustioneer, Inc. of Springfield, OH, which was a company that produced automatic coal burners and stokers.  This was the era when many homes and companies in the United States were heated with coal. 

In 1955, the company was purchased by the Kelsey-Hayes Company and focused on the manufacture of jet engine parts.  For Steel Products Engineering, this was a good move as American households and commercial buildings were converting to natural gas to replace coal for heating.  The manufacture of coal stokers was a product line with no future.  I distinctly remember in the early 1950's when the house I lived in was converted as I remember having a conversation with the technician that was doing the work.  During this period the company became known as the SPECO Division of Kelsey-Hayes.  Afterwards, no matter the owner of the company, it was referred to as SPECO.  During this period SPECO's employment reached 2,200 employees as one its main products was gears for helicopters used in the Vietnam War.

In 1973, with the end of the Vietnam War and the end of gear making for war-time helicopters, Kelsey-Hayes sold its SPECO Division to Fruehauf Corporation.  In 1987, Grabill Aerospace purchased SPECO.  Grabill filed for bankruptcy in 1989 and sold SPECO to SNECMA in 1992, which then closed the operation in May 1996.  The equipment in the manufacturing plants was sold to a California company.  In 2004, the company's former plant complex at 1205 West Columbia Street was razed for redevelopment.

The Steel Products Engineering Company World War Two Products:  This company made a diverse number of products to help win World War Two.  Table 1 shows that Steel Products Engineering had $47,032,000 in major contracts from the U.S. Army and Navy during World War Two.  $43,820,000 was for gun turrets and gun turret assemblies, which was 93% of its total contracts.  These contracts were for the upper deck gun turret for the B-17 bomber.  The company also made variable pitch propeller blade hubs, engines, and air conditioning units for the U.S. Navy.  For the U.S. Army it made several types of trailers and bomb racks. The company also made bomb sight mounts, tools, dies, jigs, and fixtures.  It had another facility located in the Springfield, OH area that did experimental aircraft work.

While Table 1 shows the first contract for gun turret assemblies was issued in October 1941, Steel Products Engineering Company actually became involved with the manufacture of Sperry Gyroscope Company's A-1 top deck turret for the B-17 bomber.  In December 1940, Sperry had a contract from the Army Air Corps for 540 units but did not have the manufacturing capability to make the heavy castings and then machine them.  The Steel Products Engineering Company, started in 1908 as a tool and die shop, had the necessary equipment.  Sperry chose Steel Products Engineering as a subcontractor to do this work.  Steel Products had six A-1 partial turrets done and ready to ship to Boeing in Seattle, WA by February 1941.  Once the fire interrupter control units arrived from Sperry, they were installed, and the complete units were sent to Boeing. 

Because Steel Products Engineering Company built the first 540 A-1s for the B-17, it was only natural that in October 1941, Steel Products Engineering Company would receive an Army Air Corps contract to build more A-1 top deck turrets under license from Sperry.

The A-1, A-1A, and A-1B had six different types of domes for the turrets, as shown in Table 2.  From the information in the Table 2, it is possible to obtain a minimum number of turrets that Steel Products Engineering Company produced during World War Two, which is 3,238.  The table also shows that Steel Products Engineering Company and Emerson Electric were each producing about half of the turrets.

The information below looks at two different methods of estimating the total number of turrets Steel Products Engineering Company produced during World War Two.

The historical record indicates that by April 1943, Steel Products was tooled up to produce 250 A-1 top deck turrets per month.  If the company ran at this rate for the next 27 months until the end of B-17 production in July 1945, it could have produced 6,750 B-17 top deck turrets.  The first contract for $14,588,000 was released in October 1941.  At some point after this, the company would have started ramping up production until it was fully tooled to produce 250 units per month. 

The original contract that Sperry was issued in December 1940 for its A-1 turret was for a total of $3,879,000, or $7,185 per turret.  If the $7,185 is used as a rough estimate for the amount Steel Products Engineering Company was paid for each turret, ($47,032,000/$7,7185) this would show that the company built 6,545 turrets.  This number of turrets could be low, because as the war continued and the company gained experience in building the devices, the cost would have declined.

Two different methods show that Steel Products Engineering Company built at least 6,000 B-17 top deck turrets during World War Two.  It supplied approximately half of the turrets required for the 12,731 B-17s built during the war.  This also fits well with the information in Table 2 that indicated the company was producing about half of the B-17 top deck turrets.  Steel Products Engineering Company was a significant supplier for turrets in World War Two.  These included the A-1, A-1A, A-1B, and A-1C, which was exclusively built by Steel Products Engineering Company.

This A-1 upper gun turret is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  This particular unit was manufactured by Emerson Electric, which was the other supplier of the turret.  Steel Products Engineering Company's turrets would be identical.  To make sure this happened, Steel Products and Emerson Electric visited each other's plants on alternate weeks to make sure the parts for their respective turrets were interchangeable with the other company's parts.

The historical record shows that along with the original six A-1 top deck turrets that Steel Products Engineering Company sent Boeing in Seattle, WA, it also had also assembled Sperry six lower remote control turrets, which were also shipped to Boeing.

By the end of 1941, Steel Products had produced a total 111 top deck turrets and 91 lower remote turrets.  In total, Steel Products manufactured 112 lower deck remote turrets installed in B-17Es, serial numbers 41-2393 through 41-2504.  Many of these B-17s were sent to the southwest Pacific.  B-17E 41-2429 arrived over Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941.  It later flew General MacArthur's staff out of the Philippines on March 25,1942.  On August 7, 1942, it was shot down over Rabaul.  B-17E 41-2430 was also arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  It was shot down on June 25. 1943 while on a night mission to Rabaul.

Steel Products Engineering Company built the Sperry remote lower deck turret that was installed on B-17s 41-2393 through 41-2504.

There is a 50-50 chance that the B-17F "Memphis Belle" had a Standard Steel Products Engineering-built top deck turret when it did its famous 25 missions over Europe.

This and the next two photos are more images of the Sperry A-1 top deck turret on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  Author's photo.

Author's photo.

Author's photo.

Steel Products Engineering Company made improvements to the A-1 turret.  The new turret was designated as the A-1C, and Steel Products Engineering Company was the only producer of this type.  However, it was too late in the war to be introduced into production.

This image from April 1945shows a Steel Products Engineering Company-built turret in a department store display window in Springfield, OH. 

The semi-trailer contract in Table 1 for $57,000 issued 4-1942 was Army Quartermaster contract 445L.  Table 4 shows that Steel Products Engineering Company actually had four different contacts for trailers of three different types.  For whatever reason, three of the contracts were not included in the Major Contract Listing.  The construction of trailers is another example of the ability of Steel Products Engineering Company to make various types of products for the war effort.  The company built a total of 2,283 trailers for the war effort. 

This is an example of a World War Two era one-ton two-wheel cargo trailer like Steel Products Engineering Company manufactured.  Author's photo.

Steel Products Engineering Company built 2,002 one-ton two-wheel cargo trailers during World War Two.  It was one of several companies that made this type of trailer. 

Steel Products Engineering Company built 301 3-ton, 2-wheel semitrailers. 

Steel Products Engineering Company was a subcontractor for the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors.  Eastern Aircraft built 7,546 TBM torpedo bombers for the U.S. Navy.  Steel Products Engineering Company supplied four different part numbers to Eastern Aircraft.  These were fuel filler cap assemblies, part numbers M34067, M34183, M34357, and M34056.  Author's photo.

Steel Products Engineering Company Factories:

This is the original Steel Products Engineering Company factory at the corner of Columbia Street and Dakota Avenue in Springfield, OH.  Built in 1917, the was 100 feet long building was built of steel and brick to be fireproof.  This replaced another building the company had at this location. 

This is the main Steel Products Engineering Plant in 1944.  This was known as Plant 1 and covered 5.834 acres at 1205 Columbia Street in Springfield, OH.  The 1917-built three-story plant is in the lower left hand corner.

In August 1940 Steel Products Engineering Company purchased the former C. and L.E. Traction Company plant in Springfield, OH for future expansion. 

During World War Two, the company utilized the former C. and L.E. Traction company for War Production.  It was designated as Plant 2.

In the 1970s the company opened a third plant on Baker Road on the west side of Springfield, OH.  This was the last location from which the company operated before its ultimate closure in 1996.

Surviving B-17s: Forty six B-17s still exist.  Half of them should have top deck gun turrets made by Steel Products Engineering Company.  

Some of the B-17s are on static display like this one at the USAF Armament Museum.  Author's photo.

Others are undergoing restoration like this one at the Museum of Aviation.  Author's photo.

Author's photo.

A few B-17s still fly and can be seen at flying events like the Spirit of St. Louis Airshow.  Author's photo.