Evening star., 1941-10-08
Aircraft Builder
Makes Good on 1910
Output Prediction
HeoviIy Armed, Speedy
Aireobro Fighter Perform!
For Aviotion Writers
BY W. H. SHIPPEN. Jr.,

BUFFALO. N Y, Oct. 8.-Work-
men plowed up a 7S-acre wheat field
beside Niagara Falls Airport last
October and planted an improved
variety of dragons teeth.
And now. year later to the day.
comes the harvest crop of fighter
planes swift and deadly enough to
trade fire. the designers say. with
the best which World War II has
developed
A group OF 80 aviation writers
came here today to see the fulfill
ment of a prediction made to them
on q similar trip a year ago by
Larry Bell, president and founder
Of 6-year -old production company
whose history is typical of the ex-
pansion of the whole industry.
Schedule Beaten by Six, Weeks.
A year ago Mr.. Bell envisioned
for the writers as they looked over
the field of ripping wheat a great
fighter aircraft assembly plant whose
production lines would be discharg-
ing Airacobras ready for action by
October 8, 194l.
Mr.. Bell and his organizat ton beat
this schedule bv six weeks. an
achievement outstanding even in a
community now producing almost
half of the country's combat air.
planes.
On last October workmen broke
ground and unloaded their tools. a
scant jump ahead of Buffalo's fierce
winter. They drove foundat tions into
the frozen ground and raised steel
from which high winds sometimes
toppled workers. The job went on
in all weather. "a hours a day when
possible, in sub-zero temperatures
and sleet and snowstorms.
BY May the outer shell of a rug
ged assembly plant with 24O.OO0
square feet of floor space was COM
plete. Meanwhile, an army of en-
gineers had been toiling over the
drafting boards. designing something
entirely new in the way of mass pro-
duction lines for a complicated
fighter aircraft.
No sooner had the roof been COM
pleted than the machinery moved in,
and by the middle of last August it
was geared, oiled and ready to roll.
Two production lines have been
rolling "a hours a day ever since.
and two more will be ready in 80
days and another pair in a few
months, perhaps before Christmas.
This represents only the assembly
plant. Most of the manufacturing
still Is done in the companys orig
inal plant in Buffalo
On the Niagara Falls site. however.
workmen today were digging up ad-
ditional acres of wheat, laying
foundations for 100000 more square
feet Of floor space. This addition
Mr.. Bell hopes to have in operation
by late spring or early summer.
Then all the fighter manufacturing
processes will be brought under one
roof, and the old Buffalo plant will
go over to the production of assembly
parts for the great bomber program.
Fighter Demonstrated.
This afternoon the writers were
treated to demonstration of the
speed, maneuverability and fire
power of the only single-seater fighter
to carry 81 millimeter cannon in
addition to a nest of machine guns.
The fighter carries heavy armament
and armor at speeds which voluntary
censorship places in the 400-mile-
an-hOur class. The cannon fires
through the hollow propeller hub
and the engine is mounted behind q
pilots cockpit inclosed In stream
lined, bullet-proof glass. The ship
has tricycle. landing gear.
The Army already is receiving the
Airacobra in some quantity, and
quite few now are going forward
to the British overseas.
1t is too early yet to obtain detailed
reports Of how the fighters stand up
in actual combat. From what the
writer's saw of their perforance this
afternoon, however, it was the con-
sensus that they wouldn't do too
badly. whatever new weapons they
may encounter In the troubled skies
over Europe.