Evening star., 1943-12-04
Production Records
In Ships and Planes
Set Up in November
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
New records in the produc-
ton of warships and planes were
set in November, and the rate
of output is increasing in
tempo.
BY the end of December approx
mately $500 1943 model warplanes
will have rolled off the assembly
lines and the goal for next year
probably will be raised to approx
mately 115,000.
The accelerating pace of plane
production reached a total of 8,78e
for November, or one every five
minutes, the War Production Board
announced yesterday, and plane
builders need only to maintain their
present rate of increase to top the
1900 mark in December.
Aircraft Carriers Added.
At the same time it was an
nounced by Secretary of the Navy
Knox that about a dozen" new air
craft carriers of all types were
among the record quarter million
tons of naval craft turned out last
month.
BY this week end, Mr.. Knox said,
the 1943 program of 26O new de-
stroyer-escort vessels will be COM
pleted, bringing the total built to
around 300. He previously had said
the Navy has 40 carriers of all
types, but whether these included
the dozen completed in November
was not made clear.
I'VE also accepted well over 1000
airplanes; in fact, we received almost
1000 fighters and bombers,' Mr..
Knox said.
Meanwhile, the House Naval At
fairs Committee reported out a bill
authorizing the additional expendi-
ture of $235 100000 on West Coast
naval installations to speed the flow
of men and materials to Pacific war
zones.
December plane production, added
to the 11-month total of 76,876 al
ready rolled up, would bring the
years total to at least 85,876 and
the annual rate of production to ap-
proximately 100000 planes a year.
That would be short of the orig
inal 1943 schedule of 10000 planes
which never was officially an
nounced and which has been revised
downward several timeS-but WPB
Chairman Donald NJ Nelson re-
vealed that in November airplanes
rolled off the assembly lines at
rate only 3 per cent behind the cur
rent schedule.
Among them were more than 1000
heavy, four-engined bombers, in
cluding an unspecified number of
the new B-29 super -bombers.
Mr.. Nelson's disclosure of the
heavy-bomber output was the first
lifting of the military secrecy COW
ering that program. Also, it gave
one important answer to why the
1943 schedules of overall plane
production were trimmed down:
The increasing emphasis on heavy,
complicated, long range aerial
dreadnaughts.
Other factors were: The original
goal was set impossibly high as IAN
incentive rather than a working
schedule; output was interrupted
frequently for design changes; the
West Coasts manpower crisis cut
into production; and the much pub
licized summer slump" in NUM-
tions affected aircraft probably
more noticeably than any other
weapon.
If $4,000 panes is next years goal,
as some qualified experts reckoned
1t appeared that plane production
would hit its wartime peak about
midyear and would stabilize at
something over 10000 planes a
monitor between 10000 and 1885,
600 planes year-from then on.
Officials said production could be
pushed much higher if desired, out
only at the sacrifice of f1eXibllity
Neither Army nor Navy has shown
any inclination to freeze designs.
preferring constant response to
changing combat needs.