The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-07-02

Speaking to a crowd of 5000 men
and women at the North Elmwood
plant of the Curtiss Aeroplane & Mo
tor Corporation, Major General W.. S.
Brackner, the comptroller general of
equipment for the British air council,
declared that next years fighting will
be much more intense than the cam
pagfns of 1918. America, he said,
will play a tremendous part through
her army and navy but particularly
through her aviation programme.
''The more airplanes you build and
the quicker you build them" he said,
'the sooner will the war be over" He
himself, is prepared to see three years
more of conflict.
We've got to go beyond our past
achievements" the famous soldier of
| % years service said as he leaned over
the platform around which were as
sembled the workers and several hun
dred jackies in uniform. I'VE must
be prepared to send great afrplanes,
equipped with four, five or six mo-
tors, if necessary, on bombing expe-
ditions into the Industrial centers of
| all Germany and into Berlin, too. We
ask America to help US in that work
of carrying the fighting behind the
| lines We have been able this year
to bomb the industrial centers along
the Rhine but we must do more.
lover in England, we've put into the
aviation and other war work pretty
we'll all we've got. The message Of
Great Britain to you workers is this:
Push On-Work Harder and Make
More and More Airplanes.
"By next summer, we will have got
in England about as far as we can go
in the development of aircraft facili-
ties. Then we shall have to give at
tention to the development of new
types rather than to the expansion Of
production. America comes in to
meet that condition with her unlim-
tied resources of men and factories,
such as this, for the building of air
planes and engines"
Major General Brackner is making
a. trip to the airplane centers of the
United States. He is accompanied by
Sir Henry Fowler (the man who re-
organized the Royal Aircraft Factory
and who is the chief assistant to Sir
William Weir, air minister of Great
Brittany and Colonel the Master OF
Sempill. one of Great Britains fore
most experts on aeronautics. The
party is in charge of Lieutenant H
H. Emmons, U. S. N, director of al
airplane engine production in the Unit
ed States.
Generous credit and praise for the
part that America has so far played il
the war through it's aircraft facilitie
was a feature of General Brackner'
speech.
"At the beginning of the war;" h
said, England was even less unpre
. pared than America. We had neve
made an airplane engine and our pro
duction did not exceed 100 a year. To
day we have about 5000 planes in &C
ton every day. That doesn't appea
to be much to you who are so accus
toned to great numbers. But con
slider that so per cent. Of this tota
is done up every month in service an
that an equal number must be held i
reserve and an equal number agai
kept behind for training purposes an
you see that we have reached a yer
4 large production.
1--WE owe you a debt of gratitudt
1 Before you entered the war, you pre-
, duced for us / 900 Curtiss biplanes an
= they filled in spIendidly in our gres
emergency. The Curtiss JN4 and tn
Curtiss OX5 motor made the most re
e liable of machines from the start.
G ''I must mention the Curtiss flyin
40 boat for we have depended largely Q
= the flying boat to keep down the sui
: marine. Your navy is cooperating
IS a great naval programme with Il
:. British Grand Fleet. Your f1yir
- boats are patrolling the coasts of Gre
Britain and France and just before
left England saw the latest you a,
!. sending over and they were doi1
splendid work indeed.
"You must always expect certa
amount of bad luck in the productit
of a fighting plane because chang
are so frequent and it Is largely
= work of experiment as it goes alon
al Here in the Curtiss plant you are so,
&C. to build the SE5 which has been d
o., veloped at the Royal Aircraft factor
R. The SE5 is better and faster fight
10; than anything that the Germans ha
u been able to send against us. We a
Fps you to build lots of them and bui
rio them fast"
"a; General Brackner said that duri
Is; the recent German offensive befo
RS. Amiens, the British concentrated
est available fighting planes on the ne
les row front. At one of the critic
Ihours, he said. 24O planes were Sc