Evening star., 1922-04-06
|OPT|M|STS TOLD
! OF PLANE BUILDING
Col. Gilmore Addresses Club
on Development of Fly
ing Craft.

The development of the airplane
and its accessories during the war
and as a result Of the wartime needs
formed the theme of an address by
Col William E. Gilmore, in charge of
air service supplies and seif-con-
fessed optimist. at a meeting of the
Optimist Club in the Arlington Hotel
yesterday.
Col. Gilmore gave a review. briefly.
Of the airplane development from the
Wright brothers days until the out
break of the war.
when the United States entered
the war" he said. there were but
two flying fields in the country-one
at Langley Field, Va, and the other
at San Diego. Calf. At this time
also the personnel of flying officers
numbered sixty-five and the enlisted
That gives an idea of what the
United States faced, in the air situ-
alton at the outbreak of the war.
$4,000 Planes Asked For.
A technical committee of Army and
Navy experts prepared an aircraft
program. 1t called for $4,000 airplanes
and the flyers for that number.
I'VE were optimistic" declared Col.
Gilmore. I'VE were up against
something never before attempted.
So when that program was drawn up
felt-optimistically. although we did not
know the difficulties facing us-that we
could put it across.
LAS far. as numbers went. it was
claimed that we failed. But I say
that the program was not a failure.
We built $4,000 airplanes for war
service. We built $4,000 Liberty
motors. which was more than the
of 70 W
and France produced during the
first two years of the war.
Then there were the developments.
First. to the JOY of sick little boys
throughout the country, it was be-
lieved that castor oil was the only
efficient lubricant for the high-speed
motor. We sent away to India for
shiploadS Of castor beans and made
contracts with farmers to plant them.
All the processes for changing the
beans into oil were arranged. But we
went one step better. We developed
4 lubricating oil which worked just
as efficiently and could be obtained
with less effort. That is one develop
ment.
Linen Problem Solved.
"The next proposition was for the
linen for wings. Linen became short
and almost unobtainable shortly aft
er Russia ceased operation. What
and produced a cotton fabric which
stood the wear and tear just as hard
lily as linen, and which could also be
obtained at less cost.
1T took the -Wrights two years to
get 'jigged' up for production of en-
gines and motors by machine. We
had Liberty motors-with 440 horse
power instead of the originally pro-
posed $50 horsepower-on a produc-
tion basis of 10000 annually before
October of the year when we started
their development.
The Liberty motor turned out to
be one of the greatest contributions
to heavier-than-air craft. In fact, it
became so much in demand by our al
lies that they demanded the full
amount allotted them by the supreme
allied council, even after the armis-
tice had been sigped."
Dr. Wade Atkinson, president of
the club. was in the chair. Four new
members-Harry Plankington, Ed
; ward w. Kibby. William H. Bachschmid
and ]. A. Burkart-were admitted.
Consideration was given to the civic
angle of the clubs interests with def
mite action postponed for a week.
Invitation to- the luncheon forum of
the Advertising Club was exte nded
to members next week and twenty in
dicated their intention of attending.