The Cordova daily times., 1919-06-09
HOW U.S.FELL
 DOWN ON ITS AER0PLANES

ciated Press) Admission that both military and civilian experts over esti. mated the country's capabilities in set ting out in 1917 "to accomplish the impossible task" of producing 22,OOO airplanes in 12 months is made in the official history of the governments ef- forts to build up the industry made public today by the war department. Realization of this error resulted al- most immediately in the placing Of contracts in France for 5,875 planes of the Spad, Nieuport and Bregeut types.
 The report shows that by May 23, 1918, American factories had delivered 5,27O planes, or "A per cent of the am- bilious program while the French had delivered 31 per cent of the number promised on that date. Up to Novem- bed IA, total of 11,364 airplanes had been produced in America, but these were largely training machines, fighting planes completed during the war period totalling only 3,32S.
 Broadly stated" the history says, "the United States produced for her army alone in her second year of manufacture, as many airplanes as England produced for her army and novv in hor third wear"
 Organization of the manufacturing industry is declared to have been the smallest of the air services problems, an alarming shortage of cloth and varnish, or dope" for the wings de- veloping at the very start. Lack of an adequate supply of linen was over come quickly through the assistance of the United States bureau of stand ards which evolved special cotton fabric with a tensile strength of 90 pounds to the square inch. Production of this material was soon at the rate of 100000 yards per month.
 Cotton proved to be not only an admirable substitute for linen, but even a<better fabric than the original cloth," the report says, mo matter how abundant the supply of flax may be, it is unlikely that linen will ever again be used in large quantities for airplane wings"
 ich f0 oir plane wings resulted in the establish ment of 10 large chemical plants to produce acetone, the principal ingred- ient ~
 Had the war continued" says the history, these new plants would have taken care of all American and allied military needs, allowing the produc- tion of private plans to go exclusively to fill commercial needs"
 Development of aircraft was so rapid that frequent changes in models and designs were before the service experts for consideration At the time of the armistice, the whole produc- tion machinery had been, or was about to be, turned over to putting out a new De Haviland, known as 9-A; the Lepere, two-seater built around the Liberty engine, and the great Hand ley-Page machine for bombing work. Experiments also were under way with the Italian Caproni, to be driven by three Liberty engines.
 But American invention was able to bring out strictly bombing plane that promised to supercede all other types in existence" says the report. tThis was the Martin plane which, with wing spread of 75 feet, attained a speed of 11S miles per hour against 100 for the Handley-Page and Caproni. Where the foreigners required 46 minutes to climb 15,O00 feet, the Mar tin craft took 30 minutes''
 One entire chapter of the history is given to the evolution and prepara- tions for the production of the Liberty
 
 May 29, 1917 and the first s-cylinder engine was delivered July 4, 1917. On August 25, the first Liberty twelve" successfully passed 5O-hour test
 "As an achievement in speed in the development of successful new en- zine this performance has never been equalled in the motor history of any country" the report declares, quoting British official statement that more than one year from the conception to completion must be allowed in such cases. The performance was possible, it added, because all the inventive and manufacturing talent of the country was turned over periodically to~the government for use without stint, even secret patents and processes being thrown into the common pool.
 T,nIivorioa started with 22 motors in