United States Air Force Plant 6

Air Force Plant 6 is a government-owned, contractor-operated aerospace facility in Marietta, Georgia, currently owned by the United States Air Force and operated by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. The site includes facilities used for the fabrication and assembly of large aircraft

The plant was established in 1941 and began operation in 1943. From 1943-1945, Bell Aircraft Corporation manufactured B-29B Superfortress bombers at the plant. Production ceased in 1945 and for 6 years the plant was used for machine and tool storage. In 1951, the plant was reactivated by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. to modify the B-29. Since then, Lockheed has operated the plant to manufacture, modify, and maintain United States Air Force aircraft, including the B-47 Stratojet, C-130 Hercules (which has been in continuous production at the plant since 1955), the C-140 Jetstar VIP transport, and the C-141 Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy intercontinental heavy transports.

History
Plant 6's origins begin in 1940 when the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) offered to build a modern, hard-surfaced airport for Marietta, Georgia if the local Cobb Country government provided the land. With war clouds forming on the horizon, local officials also hoped for an aircraft manufacturing factory for the site. Marietta-born Colonel Lucis B. Clay, then head of the Development of Landing Areas for the National Defense Program was contacted and was advised that a large, skilled local labor force was available. In return, Clay said that if Cobb County would provide the land, he would arrange for a contract to build an aircraft factory on the site.

The Army had recently taken over the Atlanta Airport, south of the city and the City Council passed a resolution in support of the Airport and Aircraft Factory in Marietta on 2 January 1941. Atlanta saw the new airport as a reliever airport for the City, especially that the Army was using its airport for transport aircraft. In May 1941, Cobb County issued bonds to purchase 563 acres southeast of Marietta, In addition, a four-lane highway (now US 41) would be built to accommodate traffic to the facility. Construction of the airport began on 14 July 1941, Gulf Oil Corporation and Georgia Air Service agreed to lease the airport when completed. Also the United States Navy received permission to use the airport for training. It would expand its Naval Aviation Reserve Base in DeKalb County (now known as Peachtree-DeKalb Airport). After hurried construction in the summer and fall of 1941, and far from complete, the dedication of the airport took place in October.

World War II
After the Pearl Harbor Attack, work on the project went into high-gear. The Navy announced that it would take over the new airport as an auxiliary training station; the Army had no objection and would build the aircraft manufacturing plant elsewhere. Local officials were surprised as their plans for a major aircraft manufacturing plant seemed to be disappearing. Georgia congressmen and senators in Washington contacted the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, and urged him to change the Navy's plans. The Navy relented to the Congressional pressure and decided to build its auxiliary air station at Gainesville, Georgia. The Army, in turn, invited Bell Aircraft to construct an aircraft assembly plant at the Marietta site. Groundbreaking occurred in March 1942, and the plant was funded by the Defense Plant Corporation, which designated it as Plant #6. In March 1942, the Army Air Forces announced an order from Boeing to produce over a thousand B-29 Superfortresss. To produce the aircraft, North American Aviation would build a new plant in Kansas City, Missouri; Fisher Body Division of General Motors would build a plant in Cleveland, Ohio, and Bell Aircraft would produce B-29s at the plant in Marietta, Georgia. The B-29 at this time was a plane that existed only on paper. Bell Aircraft, having built P-39 Aircobras and other fighter aircraft at its plant in Niagara Falls, New York, welcomed the announcement, but was not fully comfortable in building the large, four-engine bomber. The plant in Marietta was enlarged from 2.2 million square feet to 3.5 million feet of floor space, which delayed completion until April 1943. Also technical delays forced Bell to delay its delivery of the first aircraft until December 1943. During the summer of 1943, an XB-29 flew in as a morale-booster to the workers.

To get production going, Bell would be allowed to use components from the Boeing Wichita plant. However, the fuselage sections received were far out of tolerance from those built in Marietta. Nevertheless, the first Bell-built B-29 Superfortress rolled out of Plant #6 on 4 November 1943. The first 15 or so aircraft were essentially hand-built. However, the AAF Office of Flying Safety red-tagged the aircraft as being far below quality control standards required for acceptance. While Bell worked out the issues with B-29 manufacturing, the Army Air Forces established the 17th Bombardment Operational Training Unit at the plant for service-testing aircraft for acceptance, modifications to the aircraft, and the operation of an Air Depot at Marietta. Barracks were constructed for 1,300 men and 75 officers, and the facility was placed under the Second Air Force 58th Bombardment Operational Training Wing. Manufacturing began to ramp up with the kinks being worked out. In January 1945, 357 B-29s were produced.

However in January, new orders came down from the Army to produce a stripped-down version of the B-29, the B-29B. The aircraft had all but the tail defensive armament removed, since experience had shown that by that stage in the war the only significant enemy fighter attacks were coming from the rear. The tail gun was aimed and fired automatically by the new AN/APG-15B radar fire control system that detected the approaching enemy plane and made all the necessary calculations. The radar was mounted in the tail. Also, the APQ-7 radar with a wing shaped radome under the fuselage would give the bombardier much better images of the ground for night and overcast bombing.

The B-29B began production in February, and Bell built a total of 311 of these aircraft during 1945 Most of the B-29Bs were sent to the 315th Bombardment Wing in the Marianas. At its height in 1945, the plant employed over 28,000 workers. With the end of World War II in August, production of B-29Bs ended in mid-September 1945 when the last plane rolled off the line.

Cold War
Plant #6 remained closed during the postwar era of the late 1940s. As a result of the Korean War and the Air Force pulling B-29s out of storage at Pyote Air Force Base, Texas for use in the conflict, Lockheed Aircraft took over the plant to refurbish the stored B-29s and bring them up to current combat specifications.

During the 1950s, the plant experienced a surge in production, with employment rising to 20,000 employees when Lockheed sub-contracted from Boeing a B-47 Stratojet modification program at Plant #6. This led to a runway expansion of the airfield to bring it up to 10,000' to handle the jet bombers. In the late 1950s, manufacture of the C-130 Hercules was begun at Plant #6, and the first jet intercontinental airlifter for Military Air Transport Service,  the C-141 Starlifter was begun in 1962. During the 1960s with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, the workforce grew again to 33,000, and the C-140 and C-5 Galaxy was manufactured at the plant along with spare parts and modification kits for the aircraft.

Current uses
Today, Air Force Plant 6 is a Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems Company (LMASC) facility. The manufacture of the F-22A Raptor production ended in 2012, however the plant still manufactures spare parts for the aircraft and supports technical upgrades to the aircraft. The C-130J Hercules remains in production, having been in continuous manufacture at the plant since 1955. It has also produced the P-3 Orion for sale to the Republic of Korea. Air Force Plant 6 is a sub-contractor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter which is produced at Air Force Plant 4 at Fort Worth, Texas, another LMASC facility. Plant 6 provides repair, retrofit and overhaul of F-22A, C-130 and other Air Force aircraft currently in the inventory, as well as providing technical support.