Us Official Photographs

Wing-hoist at AAF Service Command Base

A TREMENDOUS TIME AND LABOR SAVER is the huge wing-hoist pictured here in action at an AAF Service Command Base in North Africa. Created and constructed by Sgt. Joseph R. Ortolani, 153 Bay St., Rochester, N.Y., who fashioned it from scrap pieces of iron the hoist is capable of lifting a complete wing section of any plane, even a bomber. In the above photo the wing of a Flying Fortress is being moved back into place after the giant bomber had undergone a sheet metal repair job. The new invention, the second and larger of two built by Sgt. Ortolani and his outfit at this base, is just another example of the ingenuity of Air Service Command technicians in theatre of war where highly technical equipment cannot always be available for maintenance of our combat planes.