Evening star., 1941-01-02
WorpIones
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ing devices and valve mechanisms
still worked smoothly.
I'D suggest" the American final
" volunteered, that you overhaul
your American engines at the fire.
ouency I suggested in the first
place-every 800 hours. You'll find
that they will stand up under the
beating and keep more of your
planes in the air"
Finally Convinced.
The English were convinced.
Today that American engine and
hundreds of others like it are train
ing young Britons to fly. They are
beginning to power some of the
bombing planes which the British
almost nightly send on forays
against the German invasion bases
In France, against the industrial
Ruhr and against factories in in
terror Germany.
Criticism of American airplanes
which has cropped up in the last
few weeks, linked with public an
nouncement that the rearmament
program is behind schedule, has
covered their lack of fire power"
gums. cockpit armor to protect the
pilot, power turretS to ease the work
OF gunnerS and improve their accu-
racy and self-sealing gasoline tanks.
But one qualifying factor has not
been taken into account: Few late
type American warplanes have been
delivered abroad. None actually has
been put into service by the British
The point on which criticism is
justified is our critically low pro-
duction. We have performance in
our planes. But production has been
behind schedule, and it may con-
tinue to be behind for as much as
two years to come.
Today we are talking in terms of
10000 warplanes by mid-1942. That
can be achieved only by the most
spectacular expansion. AS late as
January, 1899, the single-shift ca
pacity of American warplane fac
tories was $50 airplanes and $40
engines month.
Paper and Actual Production.
Just year ago We were producing
200 military planes and 500 engines
a month. For comparison, the cur
rent paper schedule is 1000 planes
and a minimum of 1000 engines,
rising to $500 planes and $500 en-
slnes month in the next 18 months,
Our present actual production each
30 days is about TOO planes and $500
engines OF 1000 horsepower or
better-the type used in combat
planes.
The Defense Commission puts the
production Of warplane engines of
all horsepowers at 2,40O a month.
An average of slightly more than
two engines is allotted to each
vsrplane. That covers spares" and
the multi-engine types-two-engine
pursuits and bombers and four
engine bombers.
The engine "bottleneck" men
toned by Secretary of the Treasury
Morgenthau last winter contains
critical aspects because it is much
easier to increase airplane produc-
ton than 1t is to boost the produc-
ton of the engines which power
them.
That we are far behind in our
commitments to England is shown
by Commerce Department figures on
exports. In November we shipped
Canada and England 204 planes, in
Guiding 68 trainers useless for COM
bat work.
Performance Defended.
1t is on performance that Ameri-
can aircraft and aircraft engine de-
signers refuse to concede any su-
periority of warplanes made abroad.
Instead of trailing foreign de-
signers and manufacturers, in
good many respects we are actually
ahead. We have better long-range
bombers. We have the highest pro-
duction-type engine horsepoWers.
We have the fastest experimental
pursuit plane. 1t is experimental
only in that it is not yet in quantity
production.
We have experimental planes de-
signed to meet the competition of
equally experimental designs abroad.
So much criticism of American
planes has developed of late that
Maj. Gen. George H. Brett, acting
chief of the Army Air Corps, felt
called upon to state:
The War Department has not
only developed but is procuring
equipment which, from ali informa-
ton which can be secured from our
observers in Europe, is equal or
superior to that now employed
abroad"
Let's examine this question of air
superiority in terms of equipment,
keeping in mind that air power
depends not on one factor alone
but on many-proouction, trained
flying personnel, the availability of
raw materials and parts and, not to
be forgotten, the use to which an
air force is to be put.
Cry Is for Bombers.
Ten thousand interceptor- type
planes In the absence Of other types
would not mean air power for the