Evening star., 1942-08-07
WPB Plans 10 Order
100 Air Freiehters
From Kaiser
400 Others Would Follow;
Work Planned if 1t Won't
Retord Combat Croft
Continued From First PageD

Continued From First Pageo
fulfill plane production promises.
He added he made no claim to per-
fection."
The talk of the skeptics, Mr..
Kaiser said, reminded him OF an in
cident when his son Edgar, now do
ing a brilliant job" in the yards
at Portland, was attending school.
Edgar came home with report card
bearing four AS and B-plus. Mr..
Kaiser asked him, What about that
B-plus?"
my son told me-" the shipbuilder
continued that The particular
teacher who gave him the mark ex-
planned it by drawing a triangle on
the board. He showed it was i'm
possible to draw a perfect triangle
and added, That's why never give
an A"
Asked specifically If he thought
there were enough aeronautical
engineers in the country to carry
out his program as we'll as the mill
tary plane program. Mr.. Kaiser
answered in the affirmative. He
said he now had $500 engineers on
his payroll. some of whom were
familiar with aircraft work. He
added the airplane industry could
furnish other technical men needed
Engineers Reported Overworked.
An aircraft official told The Star
that engineers were not only scarce,
but were greatly overworked.
I'VE tell them every once in a
while to go home and sleep for a
week" he said. Kaiser says he
will borrow engineers from us. Well
we would like to borrow them from
each other"
Edward A. Locke, assistant to Mr.
Nelson and in charge of WPB's all
cargo program, said he thought
some materials for the Kaiser pro-
gram could be obtained by scrap
ing the bottom of our supply
sources Materials are particularly
scarce for plane engines and instru-
ments, though methods for saving
metals are found sometimes.
For example," Mr.. Locke ex.
planned, I'VE have just found way
of saving lot of nickel in the Budc
plane"
Ralph Budd of Philadelphia re-
ceived a contract to build a larg'
number of stainless steel planes
Formerly he built streetcars ans
buses.
Mr. Locke declared he believed ma
terial for Mr.. Kaiser's plan could b.
made available. He said 1t would en-
tail a shaving of other armament
programs, and that such decision
was up to "the high command" HI
added that materials for Mr.. Kaiser
could be gathered without causing
serious dislocation" of any ont
program and need not interfere seri
ously with heavy bombers.
The official said not large amour
OF material would be required II
convert the yard from ships to air
planes.
About all Mr.. Kaiser would hav
| W w tIiClC, MA' AVthC NOiitAAuCS
would be to put roof lover. tn
yard, and perhaps erect anothe
small building. I believe it could b
done without using any considerabl
quantity OF scarce materials"
Nelson Indicates Action.
Mr.. Nelson, on leaving a Whit
House conference yesterday, indi
Gated to reporters that new plan
for planes to carry soldiers an
weapons to the worlds battlefront
could be expected soon.
He added that he thought tn
forthcoming announcement woul
be favorable to Mr.. Kaiser, and late
added:
There is growing appreciation
Of the cargo plane problem. Their
is also a conviction that 1t mus
be tackled vigorously. But what
ever is done must be consisten
with combat plane requirement.
and available materials.
Il admire Mr. Kaiser's ability an
Imagination and I have conf1denc
plans can be worked out with hir
and leaders of the aviation industr
that will result in intelligent solu
ton of the cargo plane problem