The Plane of the People
During World War II the people of the Hanford Site came together to buy a bomber to support the war effort. The “Give a Bomber” campaign created a legacy that continues to bind a town together.
Would you give up a day's pay to help your country? The workers of Hanford, Washington, where the plutonium was made for the Manhattan Project, decided to contribute their wages to buy a bomber to send overseas. Demonstrating their enthusiasm, 51,000 employees gave up a day’s pay for a certificate acknowledging their “share” of the bomber. The campaign’s slogan “Give a day’s pay and send a bomber on its way,” influenced the name of the plane as “Days Pay” was the overwhelming winner when the “Give a Bomber” committee held a contest to pick a name for the plane. The workers asked the Army Air Force what type of plane it needed. The answer came back asking for the B-17 Flying Fortress, with the cost of the bomber being approximately $300,000 in 1944 (costing $5,257,107.95 in 2024).
On July 23, 1944, workers christened the new plane and dedicated it to Colonel David Wade, along with Mrs. Katie Belle Harris, whose son had been lost in action. The Day’s Pay then became a part of the 8th Army Air Force in England, where it flew more than 60 missions in Germany. The plane was hit to the point of critical condition multiple times, but, what was very rare for the time was that every man on that bomber returned home safely and unharmed, which made the Day’s Pay a lucky plane.
The employees who bought Day’s Pay continued to keep track of it as it flew missions, with the employee newspaper, the Sage Sentinel, reporting on its mission progress. The paper also published a list of the plane’s crew, which allowed the employees to send Christmas cards and care packages to “their” boys overseas as well as check in on “our” plane. Unfortunately after the war, on December 4, 1947, it was taken to Kingman Field, Arizona, and reduced to scrap.
But the legacy of the Day’s Pay lives on in the Richland police department’s badge, the name of a local microbrewery, and other businesses. The largest showing of the Day’s Pay comes from Richland High School, where a mural of the Day’s Pay covers one side of the gymnasium and the football team wears a simplified B-17 bomber sticker on the backs of their helmets. The Richland High School class of 2021 raised money to have a B-17 bomber fly over for graduation, demonstrating that the Day’s Pay is alive and instills community pride to this day.
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