The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-27
AMERICAN BATTLE PLANES.

1t mas been announced officially
that tie first American built battle
planes are on their way to France.
These planes are equipped with the
first Liberty motor from machine pro-
duction. One of them in a recent test
surpassed all records for speed and
climbing for planes of that type. Only
the 12-cylinder type is being made.
as Developments abroad have made it
wise to concentrate on the high-pow-
cred engine instead of the eight-cylin-
der.
After three years of warfare the
total number of planes able to take
the air at any one time on either side
of the western front, it is said, has not
been over $500. This, combined with
tho fact that 46 men are required on
the ground for every plane in the air,
gives a truer perspective of the Euro
pean aviation situation than common
ly possessed.
For every plane in the air, there
must be two replacement planes on
the ground, and one training plane for
every pilot who eventually reaches the
front, with a spare engine for each
plane.
Some of the difficulties encountered
in producing battle planes in America
are set forth in the Official Bulletin
as follows:
Two serious problems, interviewer
and reacting, were Immediately met,
the almost total lack both of airplane
industry and of airplane engineering
knowledge. The industry was rudi-
an appreciable production basis and
another dozen small experimental
companies. The metal work was most
ly done by hand, each machine built
as separate unit and little attempt
made t. manufacture from dies, jigs,
or gauges.
The engineering problems were even
more complex Europe, at war, with
the best engineers of each country
pitted against each other in a struggle
which knew no close, had worked out
the most ingenious developments in
the light of actual fighting experience
Information reaching here was gen.
orally fragmentary and always late
As result, when war came, the Unit
ed States had practically no airplane
engineering staff and no modern
fighting planes.
Construction of planes presented a
much more complex problem than
that of engines. which had been de-
VeLOpeQ ana produced here for other
purposes on a colossal scale. The ex-
treme refinement of their manufac-
ture, requiring $4,000 screws in a
single fighter, or 700 pieces of wood
in a single wing, necessitated the most
expert workmanship and balance to
secure the essential combination of
lightness with strength, and seemed to
initiate against quantity production
The first step was to secure infor-
ma ton from Europe. A commission
was early sent across and rushed back
the last-minute details, upon the
strength of which a large number of
fighting planes of a certain type were
ordered. The raw materials were yerv
largely in hand and the drawings
within several days of completion
when another cable said that this tvpe
haG been superseded and should not
be built. Nearly a month was thus
lost.
Drawings then came for another
tyre They had just been redrawn for
american manufacture and the die
makers put to work when a second
ana dlfferent set arrived The work
zone mad to be cast aside and the pro-
cess begun over again. Just as it was
nearing completion still third set of
drawings arrived, and a third start was
necessary. The unavoidable loss of
time was preferred to turning ont a.
design known at the outset to be out
of date. oue