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Second World War - Target Filton

The Wartime Production Line

Ken Bracey recalls working in Aircraft Assembly during WWII

Make sure your volume is on: ""...all the Blenheims, the Beaufighters, the Beauforts, even the Freighters and the Brigands...""

Show transcript

I was doing general work, building up on the nose sections of the aircraft and then I went on to gun turrets and engine controls, various different jobs on different aircraft .’
‘…The aircraft started out in bits and pieces at one end and they ended up going out of the main doors at the top end, and right up until the Brabazon, every aircraft built at Bristol Aeroplane Company was built on the top of the hill, and they all had to be towed down the hill, not Filton Hill the main one; they built a special road inside the company, down to the aerodrome for flights. And each aircraft was lifted by the tail and put on the back of a lorry and tied down and towed, and so all the hundreds of aircraft, all the Blenheims, the Beaufighters, the Beauforts, even the Freighters and the Brigands, they were all built at Filton on the top of the hill and towed down inside the factory works down to the flight sheds at the aerodrome.’

Credit: Filton Community History
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