All,
The story of the Liberty ship is rather fascinating to me.
A rather ugly design. Based on a British design wit a coal-fired engine (to begin with). Ugly and ungainly but reliable.
The British still wanted rivetting, but the design finally got into welding.
2,710 ships built in several shipyards.
How to keep the design to the specs? Quality control when it was done this fast.
I don't think anything as complex as a ship had been manufactured like this before. Mass manufacturing was of course invented and assembly lines were there, but a ship?
Comparing a ship to a B-17 is a bit all over, so I don't think this is a fair comparison in terms of complexity.
Was the management of the Liberty ship the most incredible act of US management style?
Was the Liberty ship the force multiplier and one of the most significant elements which guaranteed an Allied victory?
What if the British carried on with coal fired and rivetting? or it never got to to the US? never being built in those numbers?
Ivan