Building a bomber plane in just a day
In the midst of World War II, workers at a Welsh aircraft factory gave up their weekend off to build a Wellington bomber from scratch in just 24 hours. Why? To set a new world record.
With the country under attack and the war effort in full swing, worrying about world records might have seemed like a strange thing to do.
But after months of nightly bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, the Ministry of War was keen to show the world - friend and foe - that Britain could dish it out as well as take it.
And so, in collaboration with the RAF, the ministry issued a challenge to one of the factories churning out planes for Bomber Command - to build an operational Wellington bomber in record-breaking time, faster than the existing record of 48 hours set in California.
"It might seem odd, but the whole point of wartime aircraft production is speed," says historian James Holland.
"It's sticking two fingers up at Nazi Germany and at the rest of the world. Our image of Germany is that they were all Teutonic efficiency and we were a bit amateurish, but it was the opposite.
"If you're breaking records in the middle of a war, it shows confidence, and it gives the workers involved a boost."...
Read entire article at BBC News
With the country under attack and the war effort in full swing, worrying about world records might have seemed like a strange thing to do.
But after months of nightly bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, the Ministry of War was keen to show the world - friend and foe - that Britain could dish it out as well as take it.
And so, in collaboration with the RAF, the ministry issued a challenge to one of the factories churning out planes for Bomber Command - to build an operational Wellington bomber in record-breaking time, faster than the existing record of 48 hours set in California.
"It might seem odd, but the whole point of wartime aircraft production is speed," says historian James Holland.
"It's sticking two fingers up at Nazi Germany and at the rest of the world. Our image of Germany is that they were all Teutonic efficiency and we were a bit amateurish, but it was the opposite.
"If you're breaking records in the middle of a war, it shows confidence, and it gives the workers involved a boost."...