The Bell Bomber Plant halted B-29 production immediately after Japan's surrender in August 1945, when the government canceled its contract and repurposed the facility. Most of the 28,000-person workforce was let go within weeks, and the massive B-1 building became storage for abandoned machine tools while federal agencies like the Veterans Administration took over other parts of the site.
What did both the Bell Bomber Plant and shipyards do for Georgia during WWII?
Both the Bell Bomber Plant and the Savannah and Brunswick shipyards jump-started Georgia’s war economy by employing locals, training workers, and producing military hardware.
They built 663 B-29 bombers and 173 Liberty ships respectively, turning Georgia from a mostly rural, agricultural state into an industrial powerhouse almost overnight. Tens of thousands of Georgians—many of them women and African Americans—landed well-paid factory jobs for the first time. By 1945 roughly one in ten workers in metro Atlanta was in war production, and coastal cities ran shipyard shifts around the clock.
What did the Bell Bomber plant do after World War II?
The plant closed in late 1945, sat idle until 1951, and then reopened as the Lockheed-Georgia facility.
Washington shut the plant down right after V-J Day and mothballed the buildings. By 1947 the property was still empty when Lockheed Aircraft started hunting for space to expand postwar production. Lockheed leased the plant in 1951, later bought it outright, and turned Marietta into a decades-long hub for military transport and cargo aircraft. State leaders took note: a workforce trained on B-29s could pivot just as fast to jets and helicopters.
What impact did this plant have on Georgia?
Construction of the plant sped up wartime mobilization, displaced thousands of rural families, and permanently changed land use around Marietta.
Thousands of acres of farmland were cleared for runways and factory buildings, uprooting families and reshaping Cobb County’s economy. Meanwhile, the flood of war workers—especially women entering the labor force—helped end the Great Depression in Georgia and nudged the state toward urbanization and social change. By 1945 the plant’s payroll alone rivaled the entire prewar manufacturing base of metro Atlanta.
Where was the Bell Bomber plant and what did it make?
The Bell Bomber plant stood in Marietta, Georgia, and produced 663 Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers.
Located on what’s now Dobbins Air Reserve Base, the 2.2-million-square-foot facility went up in less than a year at a cost of $73 million (about $1.2 billion today). It was one of only three plants nationwide chosen to build the B-29, the long-range bomber that ultimately carried the atomic weapons to Japan. Designed by Atlanta architect Robert & Company, the plant featured a mile-long assembly line and some of the largest roof spans in the country at the time.
What impact did the Bell Bomber plant have on the United States?
The plant supplied more than 600 B-29s that shortened the Pacific war and helped the Allies achieve air superiority.
President Roosevelt’s “Second Front” strategy relied on B-29s flying nonstop from the Mariana Islands to strike Japan’s home islands. Marietta’s output accounted for roughly half of all B-29s delivered, giving the U.S. a decisive edge in bombing accuracy and payload capacity. The plant also proved the South could handle large-scale precision manufacturing, paving the way for later aerospace investments across Georgia and Alabama.
What role did Bell planes play in WWII?
Bell Aircraft’s B-29s delivered the heaviest bomb loads of any U.S. bomber and were instrumental in forcing Japan’s surrender.
The B-29 could carry up to ten tons of incendiary bombs or a single atomic weapon—payloads no other Allied plane matched. Bell’s Marietta line produced 663 of the 3,970 B-29s built in the U.S., and those aircraft flew more than 3,000 sorties against Japan, dropping nearly 170,000 tons of ordnance. The plane’s pressurized cabin and remote-controlled turrets also set new standards for crew safety and firepower on high-altitude missions.
What two major problems had Georgia been facing prior to WWII?
Georgia’s political system barred most Black citizens from voting and relied on a one-party Democratic machine that stifled economic and social progress.
The state enforced the white primary until 1946, effectively disenfranchising African Americans and locking in policies that kept rural areas poor and undereducated. At the same time, Georgia’s economy lagged behind the national average, with low wages, limited manufacturing, and heavy dependence on cotton and tobacco. World War II—and the war jobs that followed—began to crack that system by bringing thousands of Georgians into contact with new ideas and opportunities.
What was the economic impact of the Bell Bomber Plant?
The plant injected $73 million (≈ $1.2 billion today) into Georgia’s economy and at its peak employed 28,158 workers.
Nearly 90 % of the workers were Southerners, 37 % were women, and 8 % were African American, breaking long-standing barriers in heavy industry. Wages at the plant were two to three times the state average, and the ripple effect stretched from Marietta to Atlanta and beyond. By 1945 Georgia’s total manufacturing payroll had doubled compared with 1940, and the state’s tax base grew accordingly.
What was produced at the Bell Bomber Plant?
The plant assembled 663 Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers between 1943 and 1945.
Each B-29 contained roughly 1.5 million parts, many fabricated by suppliers across the Southeast and shipped to Marietta for final assembly. The plant’s workers installed Wright R-3350 engines, pressurized cabins, and the first remote-controlled gun turrets used on a production bomber. At peak output, a B-29 rolled off the line every 33 hours—fast enough to astonish even seasoned aviation executives.
Which was a major contribution of Georgia during WWII?
Georgia contributed 320,000 service members to the U.S. Armed Forces and produced hundreds of B-29 bombers and dozens of Liberty ships.
While Georgia’s troop numbers were smaller than those of larger states, the quality of its contributions was outsized: every B-29 that struck Japan carried parts or final assembly from Marietta, and Savannah and Brunswick launched enough Liberty ships to rank among the top five ports in the nation. Those ships carried food, fuel, and materiel to Europe and the Pacific, keeping the Allied war machine running.
How did World War II impact the state of Georgia?
The war ended the Great Depression in Georgia, shifted the economy from agriculture to industry, and accelerated urbanization and racial change.
Per capita income rose by nearly 50 % between 1940 and 1950, and the state’s urban population grew by 25 %. Women entered the workforce in historic numbers, and African Americans gained leverage in labor markets for the first time since Reconstruction. By 1946 Atlanta had a sizable Black middle class working in war industries, setting the stage for the civil-rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.
Where in Georgia were Liberty ships built and launched to sea?
Liberty ships were constructed and launched at shipyards in Savannah and Brunswick.
Under contracts managed by the War Shipping Administration, the J. A. Jones Construction Company in Savannah built 99 cargo ships, 85 of them Liberty-class vessels. Nearby in Brunswick, another J. A. Jones yard delivered 74 Liberty ships and 16 oil tankers. Together these two ports ranked among the top ten shipbuilding sites in the U.S. and helped turn Georgia into a maritime industrial center almost overnight.
What did the Bell Aircraft do?
Bell Aircraft designed and built combat aircraft and helicopters, most notably the P-39 Airacobra fighter and the Bell X-1 that broke the sound barrier.
Founded in 1935, Bell became a key supplier of fighters and trainers during WWII, producing more than 10,000 aircraft. After the war it pioneered the commercial Model 47 helicopter—the first to receive civil certification—and later developed tilt-rotor technology that culminated in the V-22 Osprey. The company’s Georgia operation, however, remains its most visible legacy.
Where were B-29 bombers built in Georgia?
B-29 bombers were built at Air Force Plant 6, now part of Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia.
The plant, originally called the Bell Bomber Plant, was one of only three B-29 assembly lines in the U.S. Today the facility is operated by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics under a long-term lease from the U.S. Air Force and continues to produce and maintain military transport and surveillance aircraft.
How many Liberty ships did the Bell Bomber Plant manufacture?
The Bell Bomber Plant did not manufacture Liberty ships; those were built by the J. A. Jones shipyards in Savannah and Brunswick.
Between 1943 and 1945 Savannah launched 85 Liberty ships and 14 other cargo vessels, while Brunswick delivered 74 Liberty ships and 16 tankers. The Marietta plant, by contrast, focused solely on B-29 bombers and employed a workforce with entirely different skills.
