Loading ...I remember the two little triangle widows each cost what a new car would cost back then. Also remember when a fire accident during testing killed three astronauts. The engineers removed all the molded vacuum formed plastic interior parts, brought them to my shop, and we had to copy them hand made out of thin aluminum.
That was a real bitch. Hammer shaping, welding, grinding sanding etc to make them look the same as the plastic parts. Grumman aircraft was a non-union place. If the boss liked you, after you changed their plugs points and condenser, you get lots of over time.
Layoff time the bosses laid off the senior employees with 17 years, and kept guys like me with only two to three years. It wasn’t fair, so I quit the later on, figuring the same thing could happen to me, with new bosses on a different project.
Republic Aviation, where I also worked on the “Thud” F-105 was union. Last hired first fired. Seemed more fair. That was my favorite job. I was swimming in money, we also were paid cash, currency in envelopes. Manufacturing was very good, 1962 to 1975 were very good years. After that??? You know the rest.
TPTB added or doubled the workforce with spouses, and started sending manufacturing work overseas.