Evening star., 1941-01-04
Designed to BIost
Enemy Before
Bases Set Up
(LaSt OF a Series.)
BY DEVON FRANCIS,


NEW YORK, Jan. 4.-In apprais-
Ing American air power in terms of
its warplanes the first question
which must be asked it, What are
they going to be used for?'
AS few as 5000 medium and long
range bombers would make the air
defenses of the Western Hemisphere
impregnable, in the opinion OF many
leading exponents of air power.
Our strategy, at present, does not
encompass the use OF great SWarmS
of pursuit planes, as in England. for
the defense of our industrial areas.
American air defense is predlcated
on mailing an enemy's bombers be-
fore bases can be established from
which they can operate against our
vulnerable areas.
Plans Largely on Paper.
Criticism of American air power as
1t exists today, in comparison with
what is planned for it in the next
two years, appears justified.
Our air forces are still largely on
paper.
The Navy Air Service, the Naval
Reserve and the Marine Corps have
less than $500 planes. The Army
Air Corps has less than 5000. Both
figures include trainers. The num-
ber of first-line combat planes in the
service of the Air Corps is reported
to be 500. though the official figure,
changing from month to month, is
secret. That is only 10 per cent
increase since last June.
How soon our air defense will be
supplemented depends. of course, on
the rate of production, now at about
700 planes month of all types, and
on how many are released to the
British as they come off the assem-
bly, line.
The Air Corps received less than
so tactical planes in November. On
December 49, defense officials said
none of the thousands of combat
plants ordered by the War Depart
ment since last summer was expect
ed to be delivered until we'll in l941.
The Air Corps has begun releasing
to England the heavy, four-engined
Consolidated bombers it ordered for
itself.
Manufacture of two types of new
pursuits, the Bell Interceptor and
the tWo-engined Lockheed Pursuit.
lnterceptor, has barely begun.
Proposals to manufacture 500
fighting planes a day in automobile
factories, such as that advanced by
Philip Murray, president of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations,
brings fresh to the fore the engine
bottleneck.
Loose Talk Charged.
On December 10 in Miami Charles
S. Garland, financial adviser to the
Industrial Materials Division of the
Defense Commission, characterized
as loose talk" the production of
hundreds of airplanes day.
To reach a daily production of
25 airplane engines of 1900 horse
power he said. requires a capital
investment of S3O,00000O, a floor
area of 100000 square feet and
$500 men,
Criticism of American planes,
from unofficial sources in England,
and from some unofficial critics in
the United States, seems to stem
from the performance Of obsolescent
pursuits which were hurried to
France soon after the outbreak of
the war and to England after the
French debacle.
They were Curtiss Hawks, turn
ing up around 325 miles an hour at
top speed in comparison with the
36O-odd miles an hour of which the
German MeSSerSchmitt and the
British Spitfre are capable.
A proper analysis of American
air power must take into account
the problem of continental and
hemisphere defense.
The Army Air Corps and the
Navy are ordering large quantities
of bombers as long-range artillery.
They are designed for offensive
missions in a defensive strategy
to meet an enemy before he comes
within a thousand miles of any pos
sible bridgehead or possession in
the Atlantic or the Pacific.
New Bases Fit Scheme.
The new Atlantic Bases leased
from England fit snugly into that
defense scheme.
The immediate production of
fighting planes, now being pushed
with such terrible urgency" as de-
scribed by William KnudSen, direc-
tor of production management for
defense, largely is for embattled
Britain.
Because we place so much en-
phasis on the bomber for air de-
fense, the engine power being built
into our new bombers may well
prove to be the telling factor in
the growth of American air power
as our air rearmament progresses.
For Hemisphere defense the
United States needs bombers of
both the land plane and the fly
Ing boat types.
For the last decade no other ma
ton has brought the long-range
bomber to the degree of perfection
1t enjoys in the United States. To
say that American bomberS cannot
compare with Germany's Heinkel
Junkers, Focke-Wulf and Dornier
bombers is to say that 2-mile
trackman is no good in the sprints.
Bombers, like runners, are devel-
oped for different kind of jobs.
Currently, Germany's chief reli-
ance is on light, fast bombers, but
tressed by dive bombers, which
strike tellingly from bases almost
within whistling distance of the
British Isles.
U. S. Has Counterpart.
The closer American counterpart,
a type that can be legitimately COM
pared, is a medium machine de-
signed for short missions, such as
operations in the Caribbean, if that
sea ever became theater of war.
The Douglas % and the Martin 26
are examples of the type.
Such bombers must be fast, with
cruising speeds close to 300 miles an