Evening journal., 1918-03-29
AIRPLANE BUILDING
VERY Difficult JOB
Hundreds of Thousands Of
Pieces Required for Great
Number OF US. Machines
STANDARDIZ
HELPS IN HURRY PLAN

WASHINGTON. March 9-The time,
labor and material which go into the
making Of a warplane are set forth by
Lieutenant-Colonel Hiram Bingham.
Signal Corps. u. >. A., in communi-
cation TO The National Geographic So
ciety, a part OF which is made public
as the following war geography bulle-
tin:
Let me try to depict by a rough pic
ture "a plane in the making. Suppose.
for instance. YOU were set 10 driving
1926 nails and 3377 screws. Undoubt-
edly that would be quite a task-a total
Of 71O2 separate operations Well when
you had reach q The 5000 mark you
could iruthfuliy Doe told that you had
done less than iNO-ihirds Of the work
Of this sort required for a single air
plane. These figures are for a training
plane; for a French battle plane 23,0OO
screws are said 10 be needed. Somehow
a plane looks so simple ana floats So
gracefully through the air that we lose
an thought of tho skill that goes into
rs making.
Think, then. Of the hundreds Of
thousands OF such pieces ne ded for the
thousands Of planes In the American
program, and OF how utterly hopeless
the situation would be II those parts
were not standardized. turned out by
machinery ia tens Of thousands, and
usabl in scores of different factories
on any kind of plane The reduction Of
aircraft manufacture to the simplest
standardized quantity production basis
has been one Of Americas great tri-
umphs in the air and an achievement
that very soon will be making itself
felt
But metal must be used in an air
plane as little as possible. 10 is alto
gethcr too heavy. especially when few
extra pounds make an ihe margin in
speed between victory and defeat. An
.ng'ne Of 800 horsepower is in itself
Enormously heavy 90 rise into the air
~0 that tho rest OF the machine must
lttain the very acme Of ] ghtness
THAT very lightness. however, entails
.rormous strength and perfect adjust
ment. Think of the strain which is ex-
.rtcd on Dyerv wire and nut. every incl
~ linen. and every hit OF wood as this
30 horse power mechanism rushc:
lb~ough the air at $50 miles an hour
tNrloncs often do not 60 as fast and
Nhl easily NNIAI| MNnN NNNINno Af
st"onPly-buiN house when the air
strikes 10 at that speed
But IL the strain is great simply be
cause or D gh speed. what must 1t BE-
when q plane suddenly careens down
ward. taking @ tremendous pressure of
mo part and hurting it upon another
N s that Kind Of sharp. sudden, un
evenly distributed shock, which allow
mo slightest tap Of a knife 20 crack al
.Re og the explosion Of a depth boml
fo crush In the unprepared side Of Z
submarine. Obviously a plane must b
built so skillfully and of such perfec
material as 10 Withstand not only th'
pressure OF the cyclone speed but ais
mo added shocks OF it> sudden evolu
tioos.
"The one material which gives tn.
dorbla characi ari,iic Of strength witt
rghtness IS spruce: not the ordnar,
spruce. but a unprecedented spruce fron
the giant trees OF the Pacific coast
Few would believe that this would pre-
ont much Of a problem with America
vast resources; but when one consider
that only o small fraction OF The var.
best spruce is usable ai an. and tina
iho war has vastly increased the de
mend for that, the d flculiy will begil
io appear Let me explain this in de
tail
The ideal trees FOR airplane spruce
arc The lno old psiriarchs, scare
enough no best which have a girth %