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over the order, the largest ever placed here, and the anticipation of the stimulation in activity it cannot fail to bring at the Stearman factory.”1
Demand for the Model 73, Model 75 and the export Model 76 left the 1930 factory swamped with business. Late in September Schaefer was informed that the War Department was ordering another $3 million-worth of PT-13 trainers, requiring the hiring of another few hundred workers, bringing total employment to nearly 1,000 people. When the word got out, the factory was flooded with applications. The qualifications were stiff and the competition for jobs was almost ruthless, but Schaefer made it clear that “Only American citizens of undoubted loyalty will be carried on the payroll.”2
The surge in orders for new airplanes experienced by the Stearman Division was only one example of the tremendous boom in Wichita’s airframe manufacturing industry. Journalists began to wonder if 1940 would be the year that the Stearman, Beech, Cessna and Swallow companies would break their record, set in 1928, of building 1,000 aircraft. That year the four manufacturers produced 25 percent of the total number of new airplanes built in America. The Wichita Eagle newspaper asked, “Can this figure be claimed today and can it be truthfully said that the aviation industry here is at an all-time high in productivity? The answer for 1940 will be ‘yes’.” The reporter went on to say that ferry flights of Stearman trainers were increasing each month, and Walter Beech was delivering new single- and twin-engine ships “almost daily.” Swallow was thriving and Cessna was completing “several planes each week” and plans called for increasing production space to accommodate increasing demand for the twin-engine T-50.
The fall of France in May 1940 left Great Britain to stand alone against the might of Hitler’s Third Reich. Back in Washington, D.C., President Roosevelt knew he had to find a way to help America’s greatest ally in its struggle against the Nazi regime. His Lend-Lease program, hotly debated in Congress, was intended to do exactly that – assist the British people without dragging the United States into the war. To make Lend-Lease work, every facet of America’s industrial powerhouse would be brought to bear. The results were impressive. In 1941, aircraft production tripled and orders from England for everything from textiles to tanks poured in to American factories. Roosevelt’s “Arsenal of Democracy” was flexing its muscle.3
The president, however, did not stop there. His massive defense program, funded at an unprecedented $5 billion, coupled with implementation of Lend-Lease, led financial experts to declare that the sudden expansion was but a foretaste of what was coming in the near future. Their sentiments were echoed by Waldo G. Bowman, editor of the Engineering News-Record. He estimated that Roosevelt’s defense plans alone would require a
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minimum of $500 million to construct new military facilities. In addition, during the first five months of 1940, the aircraft, tool and chemical industries led the way in construction projects by spending $171 million compared with only $73 million in 1939.4
The steel industry was shifting into high gear, too, as orders for structural steel increased significantly in 1940 compared to the previous year, and a part of that production would soon be headed for Wichita. Newspapers were quick to report that, “A boom in steel making, fed by a wave of buying to acquire inventories before the U.S. defense program gets into full stride, marked the transition to a war economy.” Sources close to the industry predicted that the rate of steel production in America, which had increased to more than 80 percent from 65 percent during May 1940, would soon exceed 85 percent.5
The strong growth in demand for military equipment and facilities was a major factor in the emerging economic recovery of 1939-1940. After years of absence, prosperity was making a comeback. Meanwhile, workers at the Stearman Division were completing as many as five new primary trainers each day – a phenomenal feat, even by Wichita standards. Such a high rate of production had not been seen since the summer of 1929 when the Travel Air Company achieved that level for a short period of time.
What happened next stunned the people of Wichita and served to raise the nation’s awareness of the City on the Plains. In August, the War Department announced that $3 million would be spent to greatly expand the size of the Stearman factory complex. The money was part of a $10.5 million package allotted to Boeing for enlargement of its facilities in Wichita and Seattle, Washington. When asked about Wichita’s role in the plan, Julius Schaefer’s lips were sealed. The plot really thickened when two VIPs arrived in the city – William S. Knudson, chief of the national defense commission, and General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air Corps.
The two men kept a low profile during their brief visit, which centered on inspection of land south of the Stearman factory. As quietly as they had come, they departed without any comment to the press. Wichitans were scratching their heads trying to guess the purpose of the trip to Kansas. They could not have known that the visit eventually would have a profound, long-term effect not only on the city, but the war effort and human history itself. Behind the scenes, the War Department was planning to construct a factory whose proposed dimensions would boggle the imagination. It would exist solely for the purpose of building the super-secret Boeing B-29 heavy bomber, then in development (the story of Wichita and the B-29 program will be addressed in an upcoming article).
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