by William A.
In May 1938,
Lockheed put an ad up in my school for a drafting class. My teacher, Svend, took
me to Lockheed’s personnel department, and there I become Employee Number 110,
later 000110. I worked on the blueprint machine in the engineering department, and
was transferred to the sheet metal department. I was later transferred to the
414 Hudson bomber fuselage line, where I started on ship number 14. When the YP-38
Lightning was transferred to plant B1, I started on number 3, putting fillets around
the cockpits. At this time, the moving line for the P-38 was put into place.
After working on over 3,000, I did two years in the service after which I returned to the P-80
Shooting Star line to hang nose gears. I worked on the first two C-130 fuselages.
I then was made lead man to help make aluminum fuel cells for NASA. After
being transferred to B1, I went with a crew to Turkey to update the F-104 for
the Turkish Air Force. Then, we started the L-1011. My crew built the mock-up S-duct,
which we took to England to mate with the Rolls Royce jet engine, which blew
up. Returning to Burbank, we built the titanium assembly, which supported the
horizontal stabilizers. I took early retirement on October 29, 1976, to take care
of my paralyzed wife.
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| I worked on over 3,000 P-38s! |
