- Initially Steinway & Sons fails to meet the quota of 60 gliders per month, because of the failure of a supplier to provide the required number of metal parts. However, once the workflow sets in, the company begins to consistently meet the raised production goal of two gliders a day, six days a week.
- Women constitute 50% of workers at Steinway & Sons’ wing department.
- 50 more women work in the “doping department” (known among Steinway & Sons employees as “beauty salon”). The female workers of that department size and cut thin fabric, cover the wooden wing frames with it, and then spray the fabric with combustible hallucinogenic chemical that makes the fabric shrink and tighten around the frame. Women are considered best fit for that type of work, because of their experience of painting nails and cutting fabric to fit sewing patterns.
- After the glider wings are finished at the Riker plant, they are hauled by a specially constructed tractor, accompanied by several women workers supervising their safe delivery, to the Ditmars factory building, leased to General Aircraft Corporation, to be attached to the glider fuselage. The finished gliders are transported to the nearby North Beach Airport, and from there towed after airplanes to their destinations.
- Glider wings require the use of synthetic resin glue. Thanks to experience with various synthetic glues that began in 1938 as the fiasco with the toxic “Welwood” resin glue, Frank H. Walsh and the workers by 1942 are perfectly prepared to handle the challenge.
- Despite the efficiency of Steinway & Sons manufacturing, CG-4A gliders suffer from flaws in design. In combat, the tails often come off the gliders during the flight, the towline fails to release, and the landing gear collapses during touchdown. The gliders become known among soldiers as “flying coffins”, due to high casualty rate among the passengers. There are stories about CG-4A being used as a fuel immediately upon delivery.