Hidden in Plain View

[Tx Redneck]

http://stories-etc.com/hidden.htm

During WW II Lockheed (unbelievable 1940s pictures). This is a version of special effects during the 1940's. I have never seen these pictures or knew that we had gone this far to protect ourselves. During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

Before...

After..

The person I received this from said she got back an interesting story about someone's mother
who worked at Lockheed, and she as a younger child, remembers all this. And to this day,
it is the first pictures of it she's seen.

Another person who lived in the area talked about as being a boy, watching it all be set up like a movie studio production. They had fake houses, trees, etc. and moved parked cars around so it looked like a residential area from the skies overhead.

Note.... I lived in North Long Beach during World War II, I was 13 years old. (1940) The Long Beach airport was near Lakewood, CA. There was a large Boeing Plant there. If you would drive down Carson St. going south you could drive under the camouflage netting. Ed Pollard

I am 85 and had much of my pilot training in Calif. I have been under this net and have seen it from the air. During preflight training I rode a bus under the net and was very surprised as I didn't know it was there. It was strong enough to walk on and they hired people to ride bicycles and move around as if they lived there to make it look authentic. Warren Holmgreen Jr

Hiding the Lockheed Plant during World War II - wow this is amazing!

[propellerhead]

I've seen this in an email before. I wonder how they hid the runway.

[Trip McNeely]

That is awesome! Now THAT is ingenuity!

[Quake5.0]

Funny how now Obama would outsource it all to China!

[Wicked98Snake]

I have a suit like that I wear everyday. On the outside I look like a slightly overweight middle aged man, but on the inside I'm a pornstar ready to pounce at any moment!

[bcoop]

Isn't the plant in GP covered by the same thing, but looks like a golf course? Or used to be during the war?

[Sleeper]

That shit would never work today. Brilliant for 1940

[03trubluGT]

I'd like to see color pics of that stuff, but in B&W it looks pretty damn good.

[OrangeChevyII]

Fuck Obama.

[shumpertdavid]

Fuck Obama.

second, x's eleventy billions


Can you imagine the expense of this on the taxpayers $. I understand the reasoning and the need, but bet it came at a hefty price.

[JP135]

...If you would drive down Carson St. going south you could drive under the camouflage netting. Ed Pollard
\

That shit would never work today.

Imagine the country being that focused on the common good that everybody knew what was done, but they kept their effin' yaps shut.

Today the Occupy crowd would make it their own tent city while Jane Fonda and Diane Feinstein sold photos to the enemy.

[KBScobravert]

A time of TRUE Americans is the difference. There are millions of people in this country today that don't care one single bit about AMERICA only about themselves. Ya they may say how much they love this country but it is only because of the oppurtunity she provides them. They could careless how that happened to begin with.

"loose lips sinks ships"

Oh and the internet doesn't help either.

[roliath]

damn, great post!
very interesting

[GhostTX]

That's awesome. Couple this with the fake divisions they created in England to trick the Nazi's the Allied invasion was building up on the opposite coast. Gotta love "The Greatest Generation"!!

[B_Rod]

Very cool pics...I love vintage aviation pics (close enough). There are some very cool Kodachrome photos of WWII era women aerospace workers that remind me a little of this.