New-York tribune., 1918-06-25
Aircraft
Discoveries
By Theodore M. Knappen

w Curtlss company put up its big
new plant at Buffalo it took pains
to keep Glenn Curtiss at Hammondsport.
Curtiss is an inventor and engineer. The
Buffalo plant was for production, not for
experimentation. Therefore, the far dis
tance for Mr.. Curtiss. Then q swarm OF
naval and Signal Corps engineers made
Curtiss look like Al producer.
In every manufacturing enterprise the
engineering and production departments
are at outs. The engineers are idealists;
the producers realists.
AS was natural in a new industry, the
engineers have had the whiphand in ma
tional aeronautical work. Now they must
all be sent to an imaginary Hammondsport.
The producers must be allowed to produce
Tomorrow belongs to the engineer, to- day
to the producer.
Americas job in aircraft is quantity. To
realize quantity the type of product must
be fixed. The latest invention or the best
design can not be incorporated in every
machine if you want quantity production.
One rs per cent plane in service is worth
hundred ideal ones on blue prints.
left to the laboratories and the small!
shops and plants. The great plants, with
the hundreds of machines and tens of thou
sands of workers, must be reserved for
production to the very limit of their
capacity.
Imagine holding up the tremendous Cur
tiss plant at Buffalo while the Bristol
plane is being adapted to the Liberty mo-
tor! Some small shop should have been
"monkeying" with it while Curtiss drove
ahead to full capacity on training planes
and flying boats. There are a thousand
reasons and explanations for doing things
as they have been done. Satisfactory and
sufficient or not. they will not do hereafter
Now we have the plants and the equip
ment, the material, the "know how" and
the operatives. Let them run full blast
Let the engineers set them tasks to do and
then retire to seclusion and the incubation
of next years programme The instru-
mentalities Of quantity are ready. Now
for the quantityl Crowd the factories to
the limit
Quantity production and simple pro-
gramme are twins.
The Liberty motor was the child of am
bition for simplicity In different sizes it
was to fit every kind of plane as originally
conceived. In practice it seems to be
adapted to two-seater combat, observation
and day and night bombers. Therefore,
the Hispano-Suiza has been put into large
production to supplement the Liberty mo-
tor. We should be careful not to go too
far in our engine repertory. A limited
number of plane types and as few differ
ent motors as possible should be our aim.
In concluding this aircraft study would
repeat that quantity is the thing for us.
Limousines and refnements for the Allies.
Fords for US. They get there, and there
are plenty of them. To attain quantity,
now that We have the factories, we must do
these things:
!. Stick to simple programme
2. Separate engineering and research
from production.
8. Keep the factories busy by giving
them contracts large enough and long
enough to crowd them until the next job is
ready, and give that to them far enough in
advance so that they can shift from one
article or type to the next with minimum
delay.
These three things call for farsighted
and decisive central management
| America is full of it.
Almost Deformity
tFrom Tho Detroit Free Press
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