Evening star., 1940-06-23
BY the Associated Press.

aircraft engine production, called
possible bottleneck' of our rearma-
ment for air defense only last Janu-
ary, is expanding at rate which
will reach 25.000 units of at least
1000 horsepower each by next
March
Additions have been made to
plants, and fabricating tools moved
in, at pace which would have been
considered impossible last winter,
when Treasury Secretary Morgen-
thau remarked on the possible
bottleneck"
One of the major plants will have
increased its output by so per cent
in December-or nine times the ac-
tual number of shipments off its
floor in 1888
The Wright Aeronautical Corp, at
Paterson, N. j.. has just dedicated
new unit of its great plant. erected
and put to work in 81 days. The
addition boosts the heavy engine
production in this one factory to
1000 units month .......
Further Expansion Expected.
Il am sure this is not the last of
the expansion" said Guy w. Vaughn.
president of the Curtiss- Wright
Corp. and of Wright Aeronautical,
according to the latest word from
Washington.
More than half of the heavy air.
craft engines being produced in
American factories are going to
Europe. Some of them are shipped
with warplanes. Others are sold
separately to power planes manufac-
tured by the Allies. All bear the
stamp of semi-mass production,
achieved under the pressure of a
sudden influx of orders from the Al
lies and from our own armed serv-
ices.
BY March, 1941, this country will
be producing annually $4,000 air.
craft engines of at least 1000 horse
power each. In terms of air de-
fense that means power for 1880
bi-motored bombers, for $3.50 of the
big, four-motored, long bomb
ers which are being delivered to the
Army Air Corps by the Boeing fac
tory here in Seattle, or for $4,000
single-seater fighting planes.
In practice, of course, the engines
will be divided among the various
types of planes which the Army and
the Navy will specify for buttressing
the National Defense.
Work Around Clock.
The achievement of the Wright
company and of the Pratt g. Whit
ney Aircraft Division of the United
Aircraft Corp, in meeting demands
for engines-a high precision prod
uct-meant the cooperation of
some $50 different companies.
Chief among them were the tool
and die makers. The precision tool
makers worked around the clock to
have lathes. polishing equipment
and grinding machines ready to
move into factory additions when
the walls were up and the roofs
were on.
Ordinarily, nothing is duller to
the layman than factory work, but
now, of a sudden, the ingeniously
fashioned pieces of metal rolling of
the assembly lines of the aircraft
engine factories have become of
major Importance. They consti-
tute integral parts of our air de-
Tense establishment.
Planes, engines and men to fly
and service them are the ingredients
OF Americas expanded air defense.
IT engines were possible bottle
neck" in our air rearmament, as the
Treasury Secretary said. they prob
ably will continue to be a periodic
bottleneck for all time to come. An
official of an engine factory said
last week that plane manufacture,
due to its relative simplicity, always
could be boosted faster than engine
production.
Precision Work.
Aircraft engines, unlike automo-
bile engines, are made to what shop
foreman call "tolerances" of micro
thousands of an inch. 1t is pos
sible at the Pratt & Whitney fac
tory at Hartford, Conn, for instance,
to smooth a surface to a perfection
Of 1/40, ,000th of an inch.
Yet the automobile factories may