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Jacob A. Vander Meulen
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Building the B-29 (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight) Hardcover – October 17, 1995

by VANDER MEULEN JACOB (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
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The B-29 Superfortress bomber was the single most complicated and expensive weapon produced by the United States during World War II. Nearly 4,000 B-29s were built for combat in the Pacific theater, including the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Assembled on a rush basis by a vast manufacturing program that involved hundreds of thousands of workers, the B-29 boosted the Allies' wartime fortunes as it transformed the economies of cities and towns from Seattle, Washington, to Marietta, Georgia, and from Wichita, Kansas, to Woodridge, New Jersey.
Well-illustrated with photographs of factories and diagrams of the plane's design, Building the B-29 presents the social and institutional history of this monumental industrial project. Envisioned in the late 1930s as a way of demolishing the military infrastructure behind enemy lines, the Superfortress was at first resisted by the reluctant, isolationist Congress of the late 1930s. Jacob Vander Meulen describes the efforts of Henry "Hap" Arnold and others to launch the project via a process now called "concurrency," in which production is set up while the product is still on the drawing boards. He describes the technical and financial gambles on the part of manufacturers and, using photographs and diagrams, he illustrates the far-reaching changes the B-29 plants brought to their communities, as Depression-era unemployment gave way to labor shortages and as farm workers and women entered U.S. factories for the first time.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    128 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Smithsonian
  4. Publication date
    October 17, 1995
  5. Dimensions
    9.5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1560986093
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1560986096
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Smithsonian (October 17, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1560986093
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1560986096
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

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Jacob A. Vander Meulen

Jacob A. Vander Meulen

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

anonymous
5.0 out of 5 stars How the B-29 Was Built.
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great historical accounting of how the B-29 was built. An easy read.
2 people found this helpful
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Retroreader
3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, poor packaging for mailing
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2021
Verified Purchase
The book is exactly what I wanted, but it was delivered with a damaged dust jacket. The thin plastic envelope used for mailing did not withstand the USPS handling. I would have preferred a tougher enclosure.
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Museum Man
4.0 out of 5 stars It was hard for the Russians to build too.
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
Little gem about the B29,more interesting for its enlightening take on labor problems,production glitches,and problems with its engines than what technical info about the plane it had to offer.
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steven
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2015
Verified Purchase
Good retelling of the epic tale of the B-29 Superfort...
One person found this helpful
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denny j Huber
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just the "Enola gay'....
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2000
In "Inferno", published 2000, it is projected that B-29 firebombings killed more than both atomic raids,yet the public is not aware. Inferno complements this title,..an excellent summary of role B-29's..Air Force-Gen. Hap Arnold,& Gen. Curtis Lemay policy to destroy the so-called "cottage industry" of Japan.
5 people found this helpful
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Bryan E Berndt
4.0 out of 5 stars Short coffee table book
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
Good book over all. Much shorter than I expected. Reads a little like a middle school library book though.
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fastreader
4.0 out of 5 stars the Boeing B-29 as an economic phenomenon
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2000
What is most astonishing about the Boeing B-29 is that the U.S. Army asked for it in 1937. The army wanted a super-bomber in peacetime, and the company designed it as a private venture. Not until 1940 was there an actual contract--for two planes, out of a fleet that would number 3,895. They cost $3 billion, making the B-29 the most expensive weapon of World War II, not excluding the atomic bomb.
Vander Meulen is less interested in the weapon than in the industrial phenomenon--the B-29 as product of a U.S. emerging from depression and despair to find itself the most powerful country in the world.
Of four factories that built it, the most successful was in Wichita. Kansas offered good weather, level ground, security from foreign raiders, and thousands of patriotic, hard-working people with few job opportunities. The magnitude of a $3 billion program in those days can be gauged by the cost of a meal at Boeing-Wichita (28 cents including soup, coffee, and pie) and by the hourly wage (75 cents).
You worked 10 hours a day for 12 days, then got two days off. You earned $52.50 a week on the average, allowing for overtime but not for payroll deductions. Like the Pentagon, Musak, the preeminence of Boeing as an airframe builder--even many of our airports and factories--the withholding tax was a product of the war machine that the U.S. became in World War II.
As an economist, Vander Meulen brings a refreshing perspective to these developments. He concludes with this arithmetic: for every ton of explosives dropped by a B-29 on Japan, an American worked 3.4 years to get it there, and a Japanese worked 50 years to repair the damage.
20 people found this helpful
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