Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-07
Air Corps Speeds Up
lis Research Work
Al Wright Field
Facilities 'Unequoled
Elsewhere in World
Are Being Provided
By JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.

Accepting the challenge OF Euro
pean warplane developments ham,
mered out on the forge of actual
warfare, the Army Air Corps is
speeding up its research program at
the Materiel Division, Wright Field,
Ohio, to provide for the United
States faster, more rugged and more
easily produced aircraft.
The Air Corps is in tne midst of
a program of expansion at its $25,-
100000 Wright Field base. One of
the important new items Is a giant
400-mile- per- hour wind tunnel
powered by the largest wound rotor
induction-type electric motor ever
built.
The Air Corps expansion program
Is a part of a general program OF
increased Federal aeronautical re-
search which in two years has in
creased research plant equipment
from a little more than $4,000 900
to more than $65,000,000.
Building construction Is In prog
ress in all parts of the 746-acre
Wright Field reservation, which
soon is to be increased by the addi-
ton of approximately 500 acres,
already under option. The flying
field area will be almost doubled.
Never Such Expansion Before.
I'm the Is years of It's existence,
Wright Field, the great Air Corps
experimental and testing center, has
watched steady procession of ever
faster and stronger aircraft roll
across its flying field, but never
have the flying field, the labora-
tories and testing departments seen
the greatly expanded and swift
moving activities Of the past year
and half" it was explained in an
informal Air Corps report.
The Materiel Division now has
$500 officers. enlisted personnel and
civilian employees on duty and IS
playing an increasingly important
role in the Nations air armament
program.
Wright Field not only carries on
virtually all of the Armys aero
nautical experimental and research
work, but it also prepares recon-
mendations for contracts for air
planes and equipment and follows
up their production to final delivery.
Even after the planes are delivered,
the major servicing of these air
craft is conducted by the seven
Materiel Division Air Corps depots.
Two additional depOts are under
construction.
The Wright Field expansion pro-
gram now under way will give the
Army Air Corps experimental IA
cilities ''unequaled elsewhere in the
world" it was announced.
The New Wind Tunnel.
The new 40O-mile wind tunnel will
be powered by 10000 horse power
motor driving two propellers, each
40 feet in diameter, with 16 blades
each. These will drive the air
through a 790-foot tunnel built of
sheet and structural steel. In this
stream, model airplanes with wing
span up to IS feet may be tested.
The test chamber also will accom-
modate full-size propellers, engine
nacelles and other aircraft parts,
giving results far more accurate
than those available in d, the past
with smaller models at lower air
speeds.
New engine test stands of un-
precedented size and additions to
various laboratory and Office build
ings also are under construction or
have recently been completed at
Wright Field The famous Aero
nautical Museum has stored its
priceless collection of relics of avia-
ton, at least temporarily, and has
been converted into an ONCE
building.
"Slashing pursuit ships like the
deadly Curtiss P-40, the Bell Aira-
cobra P39, the Lockheed twin
engined P-38 and the Republic Pal
all won their spurs at Wright Field,
being proved in gruelling tests be-
fore they were selected to be the
mainstays of the Nations pursuit
squadrons," said report from
Wright Field. Here, too, were
tested the famous four-engined fly
ing fortresses built by Boeing. and
soon will come the Consolidated
XB-24, newest of the four -engined
bombers to be ordered in quantity
Nor will it be long until Wright
Field is Swallowed by that new
superbomber, the Douglas Big, a
210-foot-winged sky giant designed
with fuel capacity sufficient to
carry a bomb load to Europe and
return nonstop"
Faster Production Studied.
Increasing attention is being
given at Wright Field to production
engineering to speed up this con-
struction of new fighting planes.
Before the European crisis became
acute, emphasis at Wright Field had
been placed principally on research
and development.
Advances in aviation were so
rapid over that period that it was
not advisable for the Air Corps to
stock its fields with large quantities
of any single type, because addi-
tional advances might make these
planes obsolete within a few years"
1t was reported.
But now that the need of a
strong present-day air force exists,
the Materiel Division has frozen
Its development on the best of ex-
listing warplanes and is ordering
these in huge quantities to provide
a powerful air armada which will
command the respect of any other
foreign power.
This does not mean, however,
that the engineering developments
are being permitted to lag. On the
contrary, they, too. are being car
ried on in an enlarged scale so that
swifter and better aircraft will be
ready for mass production by the
time the current best ships are
outmoded."
Today, new aircraft designs and
improvements on existing designs
are being turned out from the
Wright Field drafting rooms and
converted into experimental air
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