Evening star., 1942-07-12
Techniciuns on the March
Management Not Ownership Rules Nations War Plants
LIS


age of II built a glider. When he was
20 years old he took possession of tiny
abandoned church in Santa Ana. Calf.
and there constructed his first airplane,
in which he taught himself to fly. Two
years later he was transforming at coun-
try fairs with such daredevils at Glenn
Curtiss and Lincoln Beschey. In 1912
he few the first airmail. and in 1913
dropped the first bombs from an air.
plane. During the same year he made
the first extended overocean fight, to
Catalina Island and return.
His career has been parade of such
"f1rsts' He is credited with building the
Army's first training and bombing plane,
the famous model TT: the earliest twin
engine bomber, the first night plane, the
first all-metal seaplane, the pioneer
dive bomber and the first transoceanic
air leviathans, the China Clipper and
her sister craft. Today, at an enormous
plant near Baltimore, the Glenn L.
Martin Co. is turning out a great volume
of B-26 medium bombers for the Army,
Mariner PBM patrol bombers for the
Navy and Baltimore medium bombers
for Britain.
Woman Among Other Oficials.
Proud of his record in keeping far
ahead of the procession, Mr.. Martin had
no sooner launched the worlds largest
flying boat, the lotion Mars. on its trial
trip. than he announced that his de-
signers had completed blueprints for
plane of ITS tons, able to carry 102 pas
sengers. half ton of luggage and IL
tons of mail and cargo from New York
to London in 13 hours.
Other heads OF old-line aircraft COM
panies met on the trip included Mr.
Kindelberger Of North American, Law
renee B. Bell of the Bell Aircraft Corp,
maker of the Airacobra strafing plane;
Guy w. Vaughan, a famous automobile
racer who has become president of the
Curtiss- Wright Corp; Burdette S.
Wright, vice president in charge of this
companys aikplane division in Buffalo,
and the country's only woman magnate
in the airplane industry, Mrs. Olive Ann
Beech, secretary treasurer of the Beech
Aircraft Corp. at Wichita Kans., who
held directors meetings by telephone
while she was in a hospital having her
second baby.
Mr.. Vaughan is also president Of the
Wright Aeronautical Corp of Cincinnati,
the largest manufacturer of aircraft en-
gines in the United States At this
plant, as model for the industry, was
worked out the first assembly line tech
nique for making airplane motors. 1t
has specialized IN the celebrated series
of Wright Cycioue engines. Tho nine
cylinder Cyclone powers Flying For
tresses; Gen. Doolittle and his men rode
over Toxic behind 14-cylinder Cyclones,
and the newest product, an 18-cylinder
prodigy o. 400 horsepower. drives the
Martin MSS fyins boat and tl1e ton
Douglas B-19 bomber. both OF which are
the worlds largest planes Of their type.
Home Of P-4e.
Under Burdette Wright, the Buffalo
plant manufactures the Nays Helldiver
bomber; the greatest of twin-engined
transport planes, the Curtiss Commando,
and the P-4o series Of fighter planes.
The newest of the line, Warhawk, is the
Army's sole high-altitude pursuit craft
now In battle production"
After learning to fly in the Army,
James Howard Kindelberger served as
a craftsman for. the Glenn L. Martin
Co., then in Cleveland; and next became
chief engineer for the Douglas Aircraft
Co. in Los Angeles. In 1885 he was
appointed president of an obscure con-
Germ called North American Aviation,
Inc, which was trying to build trainer
planes in small plant at Inglewood,
Calf Today the plant at Inglewood
ranks among the country's great shops,
in Kansas City and Texas, are bigger
than the parent works.
Larry" Bell, who had put into service
1000 Airacobras prior to Pearl Harbor,
was born 48 years ago at Mentone, Ind,
the tenth of 10 children. An elder
brother, Grover, became an exhibition
flyer, and Larry, in his teens, went to
work as a mechanic for him and Lin
coin Beachey. Grover was killed in an
accident In 1918. Larry was associated
with Glenn Martin in the latters early
career, and in 1928 joined the Console
dated Aircraft Corp, in which he rose
to be vice president and general man.
ager.
When Consolidated removed from Buff
falo to San Diego in 1885, Mr.. Bell re-
manned behind with little money but an
idea This was that pursuit craft should
not be airplanes with guns, but flrepower
on wings. Acting as his own stock sales
man and buyer of used machinery, he
formed the Bell Aircraft Corp.
Pioneered With Airacuda.
During two years he fought to keep it
going with subcontracts while he built
the company's first ship. the twin-mo-
tored Airacuda, mounting two 37-mm.
cannon. This still remains experimental
and Bell passed on to the Airacobra, a
single-engine job with one 81 and nu-
merous machine guns. 1t is the most
heavily armed of American fighter
planes, and has been used on many
fronts for straflng troops and installa-
tions, and for combating tanks.
Mrs Beech is half-some say, the bet
ter half-of Beech Aircraft, one OF the
country's largest manufacturers Of
trainer planes She was Olive Ann Mel
lor of Waverly, Kans After getting an
education in night school and business
college, she became private secretary to
Walter Beech, then president OF the
Wichita Travel Air Co., making small