Evening star., 1940-08-22
Plans
Big Plane Engine
Plant in Ohio
$1,000, 900 Contracts
Rushed; Other Firms
Push Exponsion
BY the Associated Press.

NEW YORK. Aug. 22-Ihe Cur.
tiss- Wright Corp. announced late
yesterday plans for . huge airplane
engine factory at Lockland, Ohio,
near Cincinnati, designed to employ
between 10000 and $4,000 workers.
Contracts will be let Immediately,
it was said, for more than 5000, 900
In machine tools and construction
will be pushed in an effort to reach
full production in record time.
Wright Aeronautical Corp, en-
gine-building subsidiary of Curtiss-
Wright, last month arranged for a
$92, 100000 loan from the Recon-
struction Corp. to increase its output
by 10000 motors annually.
The Curtiss-Wright announcement
was one of series of plans disclosed
recently as the early stages of an
estimated $l50,000, 900 expansion OF
aircraft and engine plant capacity.
to handle the added needs of the
United States defense program.
Other Firms Active.
During the day, United Aircraft
Corp. announced it would spend
about SIS 900 900 for additions to its
factories in Connecticut, including
the giant Pratt e. Whitney aircraft
engine plant at East Hartford.
North American Aviation Corp,
with military aircraft manufacturing
now centered in the Los Angeles
area, was said in building circles to
be negotiating with construction en-
gineers on proposed $4,000 900
plant at Dallas, Tex.
Revealing for the first time de-
tails of the new motor factory In
Ohio. Guy w. Vaughan, president OF
Curtiss- Wright, said 200-acre tract
adjacent to Lockland, north Of Gin
cinnati, had been selected as the
site for single-story plant covering
/ 900 900 square feet.
1t will turn out Wright cyclone en-
gines to supplement the output Of
the big plant at Paterson, N. j.
The site follows the trend of de-
fense projects toward the central
industrial region behind the shelter
of the Appalachian Mountains.
Approximately go per cent of the
employees Of the Ohio plant, Vaughan
said will be comparatively unskilled
workers trained In local vocational
schools.
Output Is Trebled.
He also noted facilities of the
Paterson plant had been more than
doubled and output speeded 340 per
cent since the start Of the war.
During the war period, he said,
more than $4,000, 900 in machinery
has been purchased and nearly 16,5O0
employees added to pay rolls.
Aside from the increase in the
Pratt e. Whitney engine factory, the
united aircraft expansion plans call
for enlargement of the Hamilton
standard propeller factory at East
Hartford and the Vought Sikorsky
plant at Stratford, Conn.
United Aircraft, 1t was said, has
increased employment to $4,000 per-
sons compared with 5000 a year and
a half ago and expects to raise pay
rolls further to between $4,000 and
10000.
Frederick B. Rentschler, chairman
of United Aircraft, following inspec-
ton of the East Hartford engine
factory by Ford Motor Co. officials,
announced Pratt g. Whitney had
agreed to the manufacture of the
double Wasp motor by Ford at a
nominal license fee" of 81 an
engine.
Ford Motor Co. recently arranged
with the national defense authorities
to turn out 1000 Pratt e. Whitney
airplane engines for United States
needs.
The inspection by the Ford execu-
tives covered two days. The group
was headed by Edsel Ford, president;
Charles Sorensen, general manager,
and A. M. Wibel, director of pur-
chasing. Also in the party was
George j. Mead, director Of the
Plane and Engine Division Of the
National Defense Advisory Commit
tee.