United States, Georgia, Cobb County, 33.94147, -84.57667United States, Georgia, Cobb County, Marietta, 33.9526, -84.54993Scott, Thomas A.2003-10-17Encyclopedia article about Bell Bomber in Marietta, Georgia. Georgia's remarkable economic progress in the late twentieth century started with the influx of federal dollars for welfare and defense in the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidential era (1933-45). Between 1942 and 1945 the Bell Aircraft Corporation transformed Marietta from the small seat of rural Cobb County to one of the main industrial centers of the Sunbelt. After assembly lines began functioning in the spring of 1943, Bell employees supplied the U.S. Army Air Forces with 663 Boeing-designed B-29s, the first of which were delivered before the end of the year. The government-owned plant closed immediately after the end of World War II (1941-45) and sat idle until 1951, when it became home to Lockheed-Georgia (later Lockheed Martin). The Bell-trained managers and laborers proved that southerners were capable of sophisticated and meticulous industrial work. With their recently developed skills, they had little trouble finding postwar employment, and they epitomized the New Southerners who brought Georgia into the national mainstream in the mid-twentieth century.GSE identifier: SS8H9text/htmlengForms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Forms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.Bell Aircraft CorporationAirplane factories--Georgia--MariettaAircraft industry--Georgia--MariettaFactories--Georgia--MariettaBell bomberText