Fabrication Division Staff in the Machine Shop

Machine Shop technicians in the Technical Service Building at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory. The 260-person Fabrication Division, led by Dan White and John Dalgleish, created almost all of the equipment and models used at the laboratory. The Technical Services Building, referred to as the Fab Shop, contained a number of specialized shops in the 1940s and 1950s. These included a Machine Shop, Sheet Metal Shop, Wood and Pattern Shop, Instrument Shop, Thermocouple Shop, Heat Treating Shop, Metallurgical Laboratory, and Fabrication Office.

The Machine Shop fabricated specialized research equipment not commercially available. During World War II these technicians produced high-speed cameras for combustion research, impellers and other supercharger components, and key equipment for the lab’s first supersonic wind tunnel. The Wood and Pattern Shop created everything from control panels and cabinets to aircraft model molds for sheet metal work. The Sheet Metal Shop had the ability to work with 0.01 to 4-inch thick steel plates. The Instrument Shop specialized in miniature parts and instrumentation, while the Thermocouple Shop standardized the installation of pitot tubes and thermocouples.