A Model Representation Of Air Power

I have seen mass displays of model aircraft in aviation museums that were impressive, but this photo is far beyond any of those.  Make: posted this photo of 4500 model airplanes suspended from the ceiling of Chicago's Union Station in 1942, and explained the significance of the installation.

In 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt committed the U.S. economy to the production of 60,000 warplanes that year, and suggested that as many as 185,000 aircraft might be produced by the end of 1943. He turned out to be almost correct. In June 1944, TIME reported 171,257 aircraft produced since Pearl Harbor. In 1942, however, those were Herculean goals, yet to be achieved, and as part of an effort to help Americans understand the task before them, a fleet of 4,500 model airplanes was suspended from the ceiling of Chicago's Union Station. Once you absorb the spectacle of 4,500 planes, of course, then comes the whammy: That's only 1/48th of the production goal. The image above is 600 pixels wide. At that scale, if your monitor's pitch is 72 dpi, an image of all 185,000 planes would be 33 feet wide.

 That is a lot of airplanes.  I especially like the fact that the model makers bothered to represent the different types of aircraft.  The lower level planes (those closest to the camera) at the top of the photo are B-24 Liberators.  The twin-tailed model in the center of the upper level represent P-38 Lightnings.