"STITCHED" TANKS ENABLE FIGHTER PLANES TO SPAN OCEANS

CD 1967035 E&MP52.114

Electronics

July 20, 1943

Auxiliary steel gasoline tanks like the one shown being "stitched" together electronically are enabling fighter planes to fly across oceans directly to fighting zones.

Two of the streamlined tanks are attached, like pontoons, to a lightning P-38 and when empty, can be dropped off to give the plane additional speed.

By making a seam so tight that no gasoline can escape, the resistance-welding machine shown in operation at the Lockheed plant near Los Angeles permits the substitution of steel for war-scarce aluminum.

The welding machine, equipped with precise General Electric electronic control, which provides tough vibration-proof seams, welds two halves of a tank together. 

Original Caption by Science Service
^©General Electric