Another Phoenix Memory

Apache Helicopter under construction in Mesa Arizona

Twenty years ago a group at our church arranged a tour of the McDonnell Douglas Apache Helicopter Factory in Mesa Arizona. When we get there we are first shown three big office buildings surrounding a pleasant little green park. In my minds eye they are six to eight stories tall. One building is for administration, one is for government contracts and the third is for engineering. Now that we have seen the important part (that was sarcasm), we can wander off to the back lot where there is a small tin shed where they actually build the helicopters. Except they don't, not really. They assembly them there from components shipped in from elsewhere. Engines, fuselage, rotors are all built somewhere else and shipped here. The only thing they actually make here are the hydraulic lines and the wiring harness. They have eight stations in two rows. They start with a bare fuselage at the North end of the East row, move South through four stations, go out the end, turn around, and come back through the four stations on the West row, so there eight helicopters under construction at any one time.


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Update December 2016 replaced missing image.