Evening star., 1942-09-10
Army, Navy Decision
On Kaiser Plane Plans
Likely by Saturday
Nelson to See Design
For Secret Aircraft
At Conference Today
BY JAMES Y. NEWTON.

BY JAMES Y. NEWTON.
Final decision on the proposal
of Henry J. Kaiser, West Coast
shipbuilder, to construct giant
cargo planes probably will be
made by the chiefs of staff of
the Army and Navy by the weeks
end, it was learned today.
Mr.. Kaiser, accompanied by an
engineer from the staff of How
ard Hughes, famous flyer and air.
plane builder, was scheduled to con-
fer with War Production Chief DON
aid M. Nelson again today. Plans
for the secret plane designed by Mr..
Hughes will be presented to Mr..
Nelson.
Should Mr.. Nelson be favorably
impressed with the plans and con-
vinced the planes can be built with
out disrupting the military plane
program, a conference will be ar
ranged with the chiefs of staff and
with Admiral William D. Leahy,
President Roosevelt's military ad-
wiser, it was said. This group will
decide whether Mr.. Kaiser goes into
the plane business or not.
Test Contract Possible.
, There was a possibility, a War
Production Board source pointed out,
that Mr.. Kaiser may be allowed to
enter the plane business experiment.
ally at this time. In this plan, Mr..
Kaiser would not get contract to
build 500 or even 100 giant planes,
but two Or three. When the shipS
builder had demonstrated his abil-
ity to produce his plane satisfac-
torily without raiding the aircraft
ifldustry ofemen and materials, 7th@
large order would be forthcoming.
Mr.. Kaiser yesterday conferred
with officials of the Lease-Lend Ad-
ministration over the possibility of
their adopting his plan should it
be turned down by the Army and
Navy. He talked with Oscar Cox,
general counsel of the administra-
ton. Should the services reject his
plan and money be problem,
Lease-Lend offers another posi-
bility for contract, it was said.
This move also, 1t was pointed
out, is contingent on satisfying Mr..
Nelson that the planes can be built
without interfering with the exist
ing program. Lease-Lend will not
be approached by Mr. Kaiser for a
contract unless he is blocked by the
Army and Navy and provided Mr..
Nelson gives approval. Materials,
it was stated, would still be the
limiting factor.
Troubles Mar Day.
Mr.. Kaiser had bad day yester-
day He arrived in Washington
early. He was half sick from a
cold. After several lesser engage
ments, the shipbuilder left his hotel
late in the afternoon for the all
important meeting with Mr.. Nelson.
1t was then he discovered that Mr..
Hughes engineer, K F. Ridley, who
had the plans for the secret plane,
and his own engineer, Douglas AL
bert, were not in town.
Later it was learned that Mr..
Albert's plane was grounded in Ne
braska. Mr.. Ridley turned up at
Mr.. Kaiser's hotel suite, but too
late for the appointment with Mr..
Nelson. To round out the day, Mr..
Kaiser became separated from his
Washington representative, Chad
Calhoun, while both were searching
for taxicab to take them from
Mr. Nelson's Office to the hotel for
late press conference.
Mr.. Nelson had little to say fol-
lowing the session with the ship
builder. He said small progress was
made because of the absence of the
two engineers. Mr.. Kaiser fur
nished estimates of the materials
needed to build the planes of either
aluminium Or combination of ply
wood and plastic Mr. Nelson said.
Neither he nor Mr.. Kaiser would
state the type of plane proposed.
Conventional Type of Plane.
eve are going to pursue this
thing just as rapidly as possible to
| its logical conclusion" Mr.. Nelson
added. Mr.. Kaiser and I talked
about a lot of things. We talked
about airplanes and steel and many
things"
He said he did not discuss with
Mr.. Kaiser possible sources of new
materials.
Mr.. Kaiser likewise was uncom-
municative regarding specific pro-
| posals in the absence of the engi-
neers and before the plans were
submitted to Mr.. Nelson. He said
Mr.. Ridley possessed complete
plans and specifications" and that
these called for construction of
conventional type of plane.
The shipbuilder would not state
whether he still planned to build
the planes in shipyards or whether
he would ask for construction of a
new plane assembly plant. He said
much of the work would be sub
contracted to smaller plants. Mr..
Kaiser added the new plane would
use engines already in production.
He said that two sources of nickel
had been discovered, and that the
Reynolds Metals Co., Richmond,
Va, assured him 1t possessed the
bauxite to double or triple It's out
put of aluminium provided facili-