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> The bombers had been built by hand because the factory was also making other aircraft on the assembly line, and the B-29s differed in hundreds of tiny details
by a3w 1y ago
> The bombers had been built by hand because the factory was also making other aircraft on the assembly line, and the B-29s differed in hundreds of tiny details. No B-29 in those first batches weighed exactly the same, a worrying state for such a highly complicated aircraft. Only 20% of the "finished" aircraft could be flown out of the factory. Badly fitted windows and observation panels bled air or were distorted, and many electrical plugs in the plane's 16km (10 miles) of wiring didn't work properly.
Any European today still wonders why Tesla workers in the US still cannot hold a screwdriver, producing widely worrying results and claiming that the product is a valid car.
- BobbyTables2 1y agoWhy do Europeans buy American cars? I never could figure that one out either…
- pdpi 1y agoWe don't, for the most part. Most American brands are fairly unpopular here. Tesla is (was?) the exception.
- seabass-labrax 1y agoI'm not sure - I certainly see a lot of Vauxhall/Opel cars about, and Ford Transit vans are pretty universal. Caterpillar vehicles are hard not to see on construction sites in Europe. The only sector where American brands seem to have absolutely no market penetration at all is that of heavy trucks, to the extent that I have never seen one except at vehicle shows.
- jleyank 1y agoThought it was the N American love of (large) pickups and SUV's that's the real problem wrt Euro sales?
- pohuing 1y agoOpel is a German brand with a German headquarters and production, iirc, primarily in Germany.
- buckle8017 1y agoOpel is Stellantis which despite being headquartered in the Netherland for tax purposes is controlled by Americans, French, and Italians. There are no Germans on the board or in executive positions.
- jabl 1y agoI recall Opel was owned by GM already before WWII? And iy was only relatively recently that GM got out? (Ownership aside, Opel has been producing cars made in Europe for (mostly) Europeans for AFAIK the entire post-WWII era.)
- ReptileMan 1y agoOpel - the fastest rust in Europe. The only decent one were the later runs of Insignia and we all joked that the whole project was a failure because you could expect for the car to work straight out of the factory.
- lostlogin 1y agoWould you call the Ford Transit an American vehicle? I wish trades here in New Zealand used them, rather than the ubiquitous and fairly dumb Ford Ranger. Other than towing capacity, I can’t see why Rangers are popular.
- antod 1y agoI can remember back when most NZ tradies were happy with a Mitsubishi L300 or Toyota Hiace van that were smaller than a Ford Transit.
- RyJones 1y agoYes, my recent (last 10 or so years) experiences have gone from being shocked at seeing full-size F250s in Amsterdam (!) to no more raised eyebrows. I've driven from Tallinn to Kyiv five times over the last year, and I've seen plenty of American vehicles. I know in Ukraine it's popular to kit bash imported wrecked US cars into something drivable, and I've seen plenty of full-size Dodge and Ford pickups on the roads in Poland. On 13 June 2025, I took a picture of a Honda with dealership plate frame from Bellevue Honda in Tallinn. I imagine many of the vehicles in Holland and Germany are owned by US military folks, but they can't all be.
- lostlogin 1y agoThe Transit was made in Europe for Europe and it’s only quite recently that they have been sold in the US. Ford in Europe wasn't entirely controlled by Detroit at the time it was first produced, though I don’t really know what that means in terms of ownership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Transit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Transit
- seabass-labrax 1y agoWow, I didn't know that. I always assumed that there was only one Transit van. It looks like both the American models and the European models were sold in the UK, with the European models being significantly smaller; is that right?
- namdnay 1y agoThe vast majority of of Fords you see in Europe are designed in Koln at Ford Europe GMBH. I believe there are less than 5 models that are sold in both markets
- jacquesm 1y agoThey're pretty rare. Ford was really big here at one point but it's a shadow of what it used to be. Tesla was an exception until Elon decided to go full-on Nazi-wannabe. And it doesn't look like it will recover again: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-sales-rout-some-european-markets-extends-eighth-month-2025-09-01/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas... Other than that there are some people that have legitimate needs hard to cover with EU made vehicles, for instance larger pickups. Those are often imports, Toyota's, some Dodges, some GMs. Rarely Fords though, I don't remember when I last saw an F150 or an F250 here in NL, in Germany or Poland. The Dodge's are popular with landscaping crews here. In '24 Tesla did very well here (NL), with close to 8% of the market. For '25 they'll be happy to have half of that. And I expect BYD to achieve parity or even to exceed Tesla for EVs. Ford is at 3.5% and Jeep at 0.5%. So in total, for NL including Tesla the USA represents about 12% of the market and next year more than likely less than 10% and if Trump keeps up his tariff bs it might be far lower than that.
- tolien 1y ago> Ford was really big here at one point but it's a shadow of what it used to be. Speaking for the UK at least, it's not like we were really getting US-originated models from Ford: it used to be the Mondeo or Fiesta but now it's the Kuga. Similarly GM (AKA Vauxhall/Opel, now Stellantis) pushed the Corsa/Astra and so on rather than, say, the Chevy Suburban. A majority of them are made within Europe (if not necessarily the EU, between the UK and Turkey) so should avoid tariffs.
- wkat4242 1y agoYeah the oversized gas guzzlers of the US were never popular in Europe. They're hard to park here (parking bays are smaller), difficult to drive in narrow historical cities, expensive to fuel etc. And pick-ups are very unpopular here, unless you're a farmer there's no point in such a large open loading bed. I remember choosing between a Nissan 100NX and a Ford Probe (both about 10 years old) but the latter had way worse fuel economy not being a Europe native model (though it wasn't really a US model either I think). Also the 100NX wasn't really a sports car, it was just a Nissan Sunny compact with a more sporty looking body and T-top. It was a super nice car though.
- MrDresden 1y agoSeems only about 9% of US manufactured car exports go to the EU[0], which is down from 12% in 2022. So there are some who buy US made cars, but why they would... [0]: https://www.acea.auto/fact/fact-sheet-eu-us-vehicle-trade-2025/ https://www.acea.auto/fact/fact-sheet-eu-us-vehicle-trade-20...
- b33f 1y agoAmerican brands like Ford typically sold models that were both designed and manufactured in Europe such as the popular Ford Escort and Ford Transit. They are completely different to what is sold in the US.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y agoHell I don't even know why Americans buy American cars.
- Aeolun 1y agoBecause American cars are absolutely massive? Like, if you want something that’s guaranteed to pulverize anything you hit in Europe, an american car is a good bet.
- dboreham 1y agoAmerican cars today really aren't massive. Trucks are, and many American people drive trucks rather than cars.
- namdnay 1y agoEven the cars are massive. A Toyota Camry is nothing special in the US, here it’s a big long car And the Lexus SUV range stops at the RX in Europe, with 3 smaller SUVs under that
- ReptileMan 1y agoShocking as it may seems, people do like American cars. most American cars I see are stuff that just isn't culturally European - muscle cars - the new mustang for example, the biggest pickups - Tundras and the likes and Teslas.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoTo be fair you can ask the same question of boeing...
- jleyank 1y agoThey also were trying to produce the most powerful non-jet engine going, which is a difficult technical problem. Parts were magnesium to save weight, which could get rather excited if some parts broke and the fire started. A small time to bail out before the wing root burned through. The gun technology, pressured hull, ... all were novel. They didn't know it was possible when they committed to building it.
- seabass-labrax 1y agoThat story is not representative of the American aerospace industry as a whole, though. Lockheed were producing among the highest-quality airframes in the world at that point. The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) were desperate for new aircraft after the war. They would have bought Lockheed Constellations if they hadn't been pressured into rescuing the British aircraft manufacturing companies from financial obliteration, which had of course narrowly avoided direct obliteration from German bombing. Instead of buying new American aircraft, they converted British bombers like the Avro Lancaster into sub-par airliners and eventually brought the Bristol Britannia into service, which was a fine aircraft, just ten years too late. The de Havilland Comet eventually made BOAC and British engineering competitive internationally again, but I think it would be improper to not give credit to American workers and designers for being the first to create such advanced aircraft as the Constellation which really did keep the Allied war effort going behind the scenes. As for the Germans, they had rockets and all kinds of incredible experimental aircraft, but nothing quite like the USA when it came to high-altitude air freight.
- iamacyborg 1y ago> Any European today still wonders why Tesla workers in the US still cannot hold a screwdriver, producing widely worrying results and claiming that the product is a valid car. A couple decades ago when I was doing my mandatory work experience at school, I spent a week at the Lotus car factory. It’s amusing how much of your point applies to what I saw there at the time, and I feel deeply sorry for whoever ended up buying an Elise with a pedal box assembled by me.