Ford Trafford Park Factory
[1] It was determined that any further expansion would require more space than was available in central London, and Perry looked for a larger site, while retaining the Shaftesbury Avenue property as a showroom/office complex.[1] The need to import parts from the American Midwest must have complicated the assembly process, since the Trafford Park plant quickly took to purchasing components on its own account far closer to home.Henry Ford took a pacifist line, but it appears that the Trafford Park plant remained employed for the production of vehicles, possibly with the emphasis on agricultural tractors.Austin was briefed to build nine new factories, and expand or develop the existing facilities at all British located car manufacturing plants, to enable them to quickly switch to aircraft production.On the night of 23 December 1940, the Metropolitan-Vickers aircraft factory in Mosley Road was badly damaged, with the loss of the first 13 MV-built Avro Manchester bombers in final assembly.As Sir Stanley Hooker stated in his autobiography:[7] once the great Ford factory at Manchester started production, Merlins came out like shelling peas at the rate of 400 per week.