Fort Worth Plant & Expansion (1942–1945)

Building a Second Manufacturing Giant for America’s Air War

When America entered World War II, the demand for the B-24 Liberator exploded beyond anything the aviation industry had ever faced. San Diego alone—even with 24-hour shifts and more than 40,000 workers—could not meet wartime requirements.
The solution: build an entire second production empire, from scratch, in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Fort Worth plant became one of the most important aircraft factories of the war—an industrial marvel built with breathtaking speed, scale, and ambition.

A Factory Born Almost Overnight

In 1941, the War Department approached Consolidated Aircraft with an urgent mandate:
duplicate the Liberator production capability as quickly as humanly possible.

Reuben H. Fleet and his executive team coordinated with federal agencies, local Texas officials, architects, and construction firms to design a manufacturing center capable of:

• mass-producing B-24 Liberators

• housing tens of thousands of skilled workers

• training a new industrial labor force

• integrating with the national rail network

• supporting flight testing, research, and component manufacturing

Construction began immediately—even before all drawings were finalized. Like San Diego, Fort Worth was built under wartime pressure: build first, refine while running.

Why Fort Worth? Strategic Advantages

Texas offered several decisive advantages:

• Central location — ideal for distributing aircraft across multiple theaters

• Favorable weather — enabling year-round test flights

• Massive workforce potential — thousands of new workers could be trained rapidly

• Geographical security — inland placement reduced vulnerability to naval attack

What emerged was one of the largest aircraft manufacturing plants in the world.

Production Ramps Up

By 1942–1943, Fort Worth began rolling B-24 components and complete aircraft off the line. The plant:

• produced multiple Liberator variants

• standardized subassemblies shipped to other plants

• integrated new engineering updates as the design evolved

• coordinated with San Diego to maintain uniform manufacturing standards

Fort Worth soon rivaled San Diego in output, forming a two-city powerhouse that delivered staggering numbers of aircraft for the Allied war effort.

Training a New Workforce

Thousands of Texans—many with no prior factory experience—were trained in:

• riveting and sheet-metal work

• assembly-line manufacturing

• inspection procedures

• aircraft systems and component installation

• advanced wartime production methods

Women formed a major part of this workforce, stepping into roles that had never been available to them in peacetime.

A Partner in the National B-24 Production Network

Fort Worth was part of an unprecedented nationwide manufacturing web that included:

• Consolidated San Diego

• Ford’s Willow Run plant

• North American in Dallas

• Douglas Aircraft in Tulsa

• Consolidated’s own auxiliary facilities

The B-24 was the most mass-produced American bomber in history—thanks in part to the scale and efficiency achieved at Fort Worth.

Postwar Role and Transition

After the war, the plant transitioned to postwar aircraft production as Consolidated merged into Consolidated-Vultee—later known as Convair. Fort Worth remained a major center for:

• military aircraft manufacturing

• jet development programs

• missile and aerospace innovation

Its legacy continues today through what eventually became major aerospace contractors in the region.