How Did America Build the Arsenal of Democracy? (with Brian Potter)

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🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

American manufacturing of aircraft during WWII dwarfed that of its enemies. By the end of the war, an American assembly line was producing a B-24 bomber in less than an hour. But that success was far from inevitable. Structural engineer and writer Brian Potter speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the logistical challenges of ramping up production from virtually nothing, and the incredible balance of precision and improvisation required to respond to constantly changing aircraft designs. They also discuss the limits of industrial mobilization, why early preparation proved so critical, the role of women in the production process, and what lessons this experience can offer today's debates about supply chains and defense readiness.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.9	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Sholem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.8	Go to EconTalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.2	You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.7	Our email address is mail at econTalk.org.
0:30.0	We'd love to hear from you.
0:36.7	Today is July 24th, and my guest is engineer and writer Brian Potter of the Institute for Progress, where he is a senior infrastructure fellow.
0:46.6	He writes the construction physics substack, which is a fascinating collection of essays and posts related to a wide range of topics in engineering, construction, various other topics.
1:01.8	Our topic for today is one of those substack essays, How to Build 300,000 airplanes in five years.
1:13.0	Brian, welcome to Econ Talk.
1:15.6	Hi, Russ.
1:16.2	Thanks for having me.
1:18.2	A lot of historians attribute the victory of the Allies in World War II to the, you know,
1:23.2	extraordinary manufacturing capacity of the United States.
1:26.0	It's a factoid is what I would call that. The so-called arsenal of democracy. And as an example, you write the following. Between 1938 and 1943, U.S. manufacturing output tripled as production of munitions ramped up. Over the course of the war,
1:46.6	the U.S. produced around 5,600 cargo ships, 80,000 landing craft, 2.4 million trucks, 2.6 million
1:56.1	machine guns, and 41 billion rounds of ammunition.
2:02.3	Close quote.
2:02.9	But the focus of your essay is on another area, the production of airplanes, and you have much to say about it.
2:10.5	Here's the opening quote to get us started.
2:13.5	Over the course of the war, the U.S. produced around 325,000 airplanes, valued at roughly 46 billion or 800 billion in 2024.
2:29.0	Not only is this more aircraft than what Germany, Japan, and Italy combined produced during the war.
	...

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