The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-14

the fighting fleet of nearly every great nation.
 Last year, for instance, licenses were issued for the export to Great Britain of $2e,0o,o00 worth of mili- tary planes, plus $86o,000 worth of motors.
 Other licenses issued during the year provided for the export of nearly $6,000,000 worth of fighting planes to China, $8,000,000 worth to the Netherlands East. Indies, $e,- 100000 worth to the Argentine and more than $5,ooo,ooo worth to France. AND STILL
 MORE
 These are only a few of the mill tary airplane export licenses listed at the State Department. Japan. !rl- cidentally, last year bought military planes worth $l,734,000. Nazi Ger many took $i06,000 worth of air. plane engines. Soviet Russia bought non military planes and airplane motors worth upwards of $2,100,000. Brazil got $i,260,000 worth of war planes from the United States, Peru took $837,000 worth and faroR Siam bought to the extent of $535,000.
 Nor does that tell the whole story. Some time ago Germany negotiated for, and got, the right to build airplane motors to Amer ican patents. In the same way Russia for more than year has been building planes on American models. (The fact that American manufacturers say that neither the Germans nor the Russians are turning out as good job as the American originals Is beside the point, most likely.)
 But the military planes sold abroad are only part of the story. American. commercial planes are in vast demand abroad. The Dutch are particularly sold on them. Their famous KIM line from Amsterdam to India, Java and. Australia uses American transports and is highly popular; incidentally, 1t might be worth noti"g that in rebuilding their East Indies military air force the Dutch are relying largely on American planes.
 SELLING PLANES
 NO SNAP
 Selling American planes to com mercial air lines overseas is @ tough job, because most of those lines are heavily subsidized by their respec- tive governments and do their buy! ing in the home factories regardless. Consequently. say aviation people here, the figures on the number of foreign-built planes used on Euro- pean commercial lines don't really tell the story.
 They do say, though, that when commercial liners are sold strictly on merit, with no nationalistic political consideration involved, the American brand usually comes out on top. Incidentally, on routes where American liners compete with European-built craft 1t is the American ships which are more popular with the travelling public.
 Every SO often someone comes back from Europe to report that American planes are being out classed in two respects. First, be- cause European designers are far ahead in the business of building in- line, liquid-cooled motors, which offer far less head resistance than the American radial, air-cooled mo- tors; and second, because European military planes can attain higher speeds.
 In answer, it is admitted that
 American designers have not got
 very far with the in-line motor;
 but it is pointed out that the radial motor is lighter and more compact, than on single-m0t0red ships it is no wider than the fuselage and hence creates no added wind resistance, and that
 American transport planes still outsell their European built com petitors when no considerations
 but the inherent value of the planes is involved.
 And as to speed; foreign military planes have attained speeds of 400 miles an hour or better - but the argument is that those speeds have been won at the sacrifice of maneu- verability. A typical American pur- suit or combat ship, it is argued would run rings around those speed sters because it could climb, turn and twist about far more readily. Copyright 1889. NEA Service. Inc.)