ABSTRACT
Before World War I (1914-1918), airplanes were built almost entirely by hand. They were made chiefly of wood, fabric, and wire. Furniture makers had the skills to build airplanes, and in wartime, some furniture factories switched to aircraft manufacture. By adopting the assembly line methods of automobile manufacturers such as Ford, aircraft companies were able to build planes faster. Two important names in aerospace history, Boeing and Lockheed, started building aircraft in 1916. By the end of World War I, U.S. factories had built more than 14,000 military planes.
