“I can't help but think of the 1950's DoD Heavy Press Program[0].”
1950s Heavy Press Program and national industrial investment
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I know this is so different, but I can't help but think of the 1950's DoD Heavy Press Program[0]. I think about these special industrial monsters a lot when I read about semi fabs. In WW2 after examining the components from aircraft kills, german wing spars would often survive. It was discovered that Germany used unique forged alloy wing spars to achieve their excellent aircraft performance, perplexing allied engineers. These wing spars' strength and weight is critical to the structural properties of modern air frames. Without them, jet air craft like the f-15 would have been impossible. Machining these advanced alloy parts proved difficult, expensive, error prone, and impossible to manufacture but a die forged alloy wing spar was stronger, lighter, cheaper and beyond the industrial capability of every allied nation. We did not have the metallurgical technology to create such a large forged alloy wing spar in 1945. After the war, the US and Soviets recovered designs for the extremely large press assemblies required for advanced air frames. In the 1950s, a huge national program was geared up to create absolutely massive Heavy Press machines. The Soviets had a massive 30,000lb press for these parts, and we created a couple of monstrous 50,000lb machines[1] that are still in operation today . These things are older than we are and still out there cranking out air frame parts today for modern air frames in 2021. Without this kind of national investment in this kind of unique manu