The hidden hand

The beer can mill building stealth bombers

Arconic's Iowa facility produces both aluminum beverage cans and classified defense aircraft components on the same rolling mill.

The number

220inches — world's widest aluminum rolling mill

The Davenport Works is the only facility on Earth capable of rolling single-piece aluminum-lithium wing skins for Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s, as well as the B-21 Raider bomber. When aerospace demand or national security needs spike, beverage-can production gets sidelined as the same machinery pivots to defense-critical work.

Source: Arconic Breaks Ground on $175 Million Casthouse Expansion at its Davenport Works · Light Metal Age · Dec 31, 2023

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The beer can mill building stealth bombers

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