Martinsburg W Va evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1913-1920, 1918-04-02
MAKING OF AIRPLANE
CONSIDERABLE TASK
Lieut. Col. Hiram Bingham
Gives Description.

washington, ID. c. April THE
time labor and material which go in.
To the making Of a waIplane are set
forth by Lieutenant Colonel Hiram
Bingham, Signal Corps, u, S. A., in a
communication to the National Geo
graphic Society, part of which is
made public as the following war
geography bulletin:
Let me try to depict by rough
picture a plane in the making. Sup
pose. for instance, you were set to
driving 1926 nails and 1877 screws,
Undoubtedly that would be quite
task-a total of 1903 separate oper
ss.ans. Wen, when you had reached
the 5000 mark YOU could truthfully
be told that you had done less than
rwo.thirds Of the work of this sort
required for a single airplane tThese
figures are for training plane for
a French battleplane $4,000 screws
are said to be needed) Somehow a
plane looks SO simple and floats so
gracefully through the air that We
! lose all thought of the skill that goe;
into its making.
One OF Americas Air Triumphs
Just recently We have received
some figures of the material which
Is required for one of the simpler
training planes. For instance, 92l
steel stampings must be cut out
79S forgings cast and 276 turn-buck.
es. all for a, single machine,
Think then, Of the hundreds Of
thousands Of such pieces needed for
the thousands Of planes in the Amer
lean program and of how utterly
hopeless the situation would be II
those parts were not standardized
turned out by machinery in tens Of
thou ands, and usable in scores of
different factories on any kind OF
plane. The reduction Of aircraft
manufacture to the simplest. stand
ardized, quantity production basis
has been one of Americas great trl
Umphs in the air and an achieve.
ment which very soon vii! be maxi
ing itself felt
But metal must be used in an air
plane as little as possible. 1t is alto
sether too heavy, especially when
few extra pounds make all the mar
gin in speed between victory and de-
feat An engine of 300 horsepower Is
in itself enormously heavy TO rise
into the air: so that the rest Of the
machine must attain the very acme
of lightness.
THAT very lightness, however, en-
tails enormous strength and perfect
Judgment Think of the strain which
is exerted on every wire and nut, ev-
cry inch of linen, and every bit Of
wood as this 300-horse- power machine
rushes through the air at $50 miles
an hour Cyclones often do not go
as fast, and we can easily picture
what happens to strongly built
house when the air strikes it at that
speed.
Tremendous Pressures Must Be With
stood
"But if the strain is great simply
because of high speed, what must it
be when a plane suddenly careens
downward taking tremendous pres
sure off one part and hurting it upon
another 1t is that kind of sharp, sud
den, unevenly distributed shock
which allows the slightest tap of a
knife to crack an egg or the explo-
sion Of depth bomb to crush in the
unprepared side of submarine. OBJ
viously plane must be built so skill
FULLY and of such perfect material as
to withstand not only the pressure
OF the cyclone speed, but also the
added shocks of its sudden evolution.
''The one material which gives