Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
December 1941. Goodyear Aircraft, Akron, Ohio. "Formerly an aircraft dock, this huge building, thought to be the largest in the world with no interior supports, is now the scene of many busy shops turning out aircraft parts. Either new housing close to the plant or vastly improved public transportation will eventually have to be supplied, for the tires on the cars of the workers, and perhaps even the cars themselves, will in many instances give in before the end of the present emergency." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.
My Grandma worked during WWII making airplane parts. She called it the hangar and said that it would rain in there. The building was used for a time to house blimps. It's huge and we still drive by it when we are in Akron.
In retrospect, a chilling phrase.
This is still in Akron; Googlemap Akron Fulton Airport and look to the south. FG-1 Corsairs were built here in WWII as well as parts for the P-61 and other planes, and later missiles. And I believe there is still a lighter-than-air program going on there. There are clamshell doors at each end and in WWII an airplane flew through the building. My grandfather worked there not too long after this picture was taken.
We still have one of these at Moffett Field in San Jose. Amazing sight when you drive by it from the highway.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5