Honor-Preserve-Educate
Chance Vought in Stratford (1939-1949)
In 1928, the the Chance Vought Aircraft company was acquired by the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, but stayed its own separate division among the lines of Pratt & Whitney and Boeing. Chance Milton Vought died from sepsis in 1930, having seen his company produce a variety of fighters, trainers, flying boats, and surveillance aircraft for the United States Navy and the United States Army Air Service.
Despite the Great Depression, Vought continued to design and manufacture aircraft at a growing pace. Soon after Chance Vought's death in 1930, the company moved its operations to East Hartford, Connecticut. Under the Air Mail Act of 1934, United Aircraft and Transportation Corp. was forced by law to divide its businesses, resulting in Boeing Aircraft, United Airlines, and the United Aircraft Corp, of which Vought was a part.
In the late 1930s, sales declined for multiengine landplanes and amphibious aircraft from Sikorsky, so in 1939 United Aircraft moved Vought to Stratford, Connecticut, where it merged with the Sikorsky division to become Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky then began work on developing the world's first practical helicopter. After first flying the VS-300 he developed the Sikorsky R-4, the first stable, single-rotor, fully controllable helicopter. This development caused Sikorsky to be separated from Vought and move to a new factory in Bridgeport next to Seaside Park to enter full-scale production in 1942.
Chief engineer Rex Beisel began in 1938 to develop the XF4U, recognized by its distinctive inverted gull wings. After its first flight, in 1940, thousands of F4U Corsairs were produced for the Navy and Marines in World War II. By the end of its production in 1952, Vought, Goodyear, and Brewster had all produced the Corsair fighters.
In postwar 1949, Vought moved operations to the former North American Aviation "B" plant in Dallas, Texas. The move was pushed by the Navy, who believed that having both of its main aircraft suppliers on the East Coast was an unnecessary risk. Vought moved 27 million pounds of equipment and 1,300 employees in 14 months, a record-breaking industrial move at the time.
Rosie the Riveter & Chance Vought
The term "Rosie the Riveter" was first used in 1942 in a song of the same name written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. The song was recorded by numerous artists, including the popular big band leader Kay Kyser, and it became a national hit. It was also recorded by the R&B group, The Four Vagabonds. The song portrays "Rosie" as a tireless assembly line worker, who earned a "Production E" doing her part to help the American war effort.
The identity of the "real" Rosie the riveter is Rosalind P. Walter, who came from old money and worked on the night shift building the F4U Corsair fighter. Later in life Walter was a philanthropist, a board member of the WNET public television station in New York and an early and long-time supporter of the Charlie Rose interview show.
Many of the women who took jobs during World War II were mothers. Those women with children at home pooled together in their efforts to raise their families. They assembled into groups and shared such chores as cooking, cleaning and washing clothes. Many who did have young children shared apartments and houses so they could save time, money, utilities and food. If they both worked, they worked different shifts so they could take turns babysitting. Taking on a job during World War II made people unsure if they should urge the women to keep acting as full-time mothers, or support them getting jobs to support the country in this time of need.
Over six million women got war jobs; African American, Hispanic, White, and Asian women worked side by side.[12] In the book A Mouthful of Rivets, Vi Kirstine Vrooman writes about the time when she decided to take action and become a riveter. She got a job building B-17s on an assembly line, and shares just how exciting it was, saying, "The biggest thrill—I can't tell you—was when the B-17s rolled off the assembly line. You can't believe the feeling we had. We did it!" Once women accepted the challenge of the workforce they continued to make strong advances towards equal rights.