Synopses & Reviews
Boneheads think you must have the latest high tech equipment before you can do good work. Gotta have a CNC machining center, a network analyzer, or the latest MIG or TIG welder. Nuts. A craftsman can work wonders with simple tools. And it's that craftsmanship that is taught here.
In 1942 Walter Beech commented "The Beech Aircraft Corporation at the present time has in its employ more welders who have been trained under the supervision of Mr. Elzea than have come from any other one source."
So how were WWII airplanes put together? Rivets. And welds produced by oxy-acetylene torches. Here you get the secrets of how metal tubes and other components were combined to build engine mounts, landing gear, and whole fuselages. This is about high performance welding with simple gear.
Chapters include: equipment, tools, weld characteristics and types, stress, jigs, methods of construction, welding aluminum and stainless, exercises in welding steel aluminum and stainless, drawings and prints, air corps specifications and more.
Since this is a textbook published to train the countless welders that were to be needed for war production, you know that it is simply written, loaded with straight-to-the-point how-to, and is heavily illustrated with photos from Boeing, Douglass, Beech, North American, Martin, Lockheed, Cessna, Ryan, and other aviation firms.