Evening star., 1942-04-01
Plane AssembIyIine
In Los Angeles Plants
Hit Their Best Stride
Aircraft Workers Now
Outstripping Factories
Producing Parts
BY SIGRTD ARNE,
Wide World News.

LOS ANGELES, April big Bill
Knudsen brought an airplane con-
ference UP short one ds7 py remind
ing them, TITS not building the
planes. It's the things that 90 into
them"
That's the headache today Ia this
growing center OF aircraft produo-
ton.
There are five huge plants In the
area: vultee, Douglas, North Amer
ican, Lockheed and Consolidstec
They have floor space which dwsr1s
athletic fields. They have the work
ers. The big snarls are gone from
the assembly lines.
But they're running into httis
bottlenecks which are not serious,
but irritating. Maybe ons week the
propellers won't arrive on time.
Maybe it's instruments. Maybe, en-
gines.
The shortages seldom last more
than a week, and actually they're
due to the cheering fact that the
plane makers have now outstrtpped
the parts makers.
Headache Begun In 1888.
It's such q little annoyance after
what the big five" have been
through that they take the little
bottlenecks in their stride. They 20
right on building planes, roll them
of assembly lines, fly them TO hiding
places, and then shuttle them back
when the tardy part arrives.
The really big headache came here
back in 80, Just after Munich. The
plane makers saw the handwriting
on the wall, and worried mhappily
over the big rush when America
finally awoke: The rush for tools
and trained workers.
Then came January, 1889, and
when a Douglas bomber crashed
here, 1t leaked out that q French
military observer was aboard.
It developed that Secretary Of the
Treasury Morgenthau had given the
French permission to see our plants,
with the hope foreign orders would
give American manufacturers q
chance to tool up for big production.
The foreign orders came. Now
the big five look weak when they
think Of the possibilities; that II
they hadn't received the foreign
orders We might now be Two pears
behind.
Industry Started In 1920.
The aircraft industry here started
In 1920, when Donald Douglas sat
In barbershop backroom and de-
signed plane. He built q small
plant and squeezed through on
Army and Navy orders, two and
three at a time. When war broke
he was building transports for a.
nations. transports which were re-
designed into troop ships and cargo
ships.
Douglas men think their light
bomber. the Havoc, Is the fastest
in the world. The British use 1t for
night raids, because it has a gadget
which prevents 1t nosing over when
1t has to land in the dark. There's
one squadron Of Douglas Havocs
flying over Europe which didn't
loose q single plane the first six
months.
Douglas built last years huge mys-
tery ship. the Bio. It's q flying
laboratory.
Lockheed was the second plant In
this area. 1t built transports, too,
until the war. Now everything Is
shelved for the war.
Lockheed arrived in 1928 to make
the forerunner of today's stream
liner. 1t was a Lockheed which took
Wiley Post around the world. How
ard Hughes made his round-the-
world, record in another.
There were Lockheeds-Hudson
bombers-fying out Of England the
night war began. Hudsons are land
planes, but they're flown to Eng
land for delivery.
HudsOns Covered Dunkerque.
More than a hundred Hudsons
covered the retreat from Dunkerque.
1t was a Hudson which first proved
that q bomber can capture q sub
marine. A Hudson tipped the Brit
1sh that the Bismarck was on the
prowl. One Hudson hew 400 miles
back to England with its nose shot
of, and one engine dead.
Vultee made a pursuit, designed
for Sweden, but war broke before all
were delivered, so the remainder
went to China. They've developed
dive bomber with a secret gadget
which makes the dive safer. It's
claimed to be 100 miles faster than
the German Stuka. Their current
mystery ship grew out Of Dunkerque
when Vultee's Hugh Fenwick few
over the battle to check the then
weaknesses in American planes.
North American Started In 1898.
North American started here in
1885 with trainers and observation
planes. The company began guam
tity production in 1888 when the
British ordered large numbers Of
training planes. Now 1t Is turning
out bombers and fighters, too.
At Consolidated, in San Diego,
the giants of the air are rolling of
the line. They build both a big
land bomber. and the biggest Navy
bomber used by our forces.
Their Catalina, the ply, has 80
far hung UP the most spectacular
record. 1t was a Catalina which
found the Bismarck, and hung over
her for 81 hours until the British
found and sunk the ship.
And it's the Catalina which now
protects the lifeline to England, how
ering over the conveys and chasing
off raiders.