Bomber Plant or Booster Plant: Fort Worth's Defense Unit: 1941-1953

Abstract

Once the largest self-contained aircraft manufacturing plant of the world, Fort Worth's division of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation was constructed in 1942. The Consolidated Vultee Fort Worth plant had a tremendous impact on the western city of Fort Worth by offering employment and boosting its economy. The plant brought high-tech aircraft development, enlarged the skilled workforce, and lifted the city's economy along with its overall population. Until 1940, the city of Fort Worth was undergoing the process of industrialization as a conventional city, with a population of 177,662. In 1950, Fort Worth had increased its population by more than 50 percent, with 277,047 citizens. The Fort Worth plant is the only government-owned aircraft factory, built for World War II, that has remained in operation to this day, managed by Lockheed Martin. This paper encompasses the political process that Fort Worth civic leaders underwent to obtain the plant, the plant's bomber production, and its economic impact on the western city of Fort Worth.