In 1940, some 7,500 Boeing Aircraft Company employees worked 24 hours per day to build B-17 Flying Fortress bombers for the British and American military. These long-range propeller-driven planes were capable of attacking an enemy fleet more than 1,000 miles offshore and conducting bombing raids on Germany from England. At this time, the United States had not yet entered World War II.

This December 1940 photo shows men working on an assembly line at the Boeing Aircraft Company. They are rushing to complete the engines for an order of B-17 bombers.

Written on negative: Boeing air plane co.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): November 30, 1940