Evening star., 1944-06-16
Vast Fleets Of B-29s
Pour From Factories
To Deal Mighty Blows
zone OF a SerieS,)
Rx lanes Y. NEWTON.

Bv JAMES Y. NEWTON.
There are hundreds of Boeing
B-29s already at the disposal of
Gen. H. H. Arnolds new global air
force of superbombers, and within
a few months the output of six Of
the worlds largest aircraft fac
tories will account for huge flights
of titanic planes to deal the most
destructive air blows of the war to
Americas enemies.
Gen. Arnold, chief of the Army
Air Forces, ordered yesterdays
initial B-29 raid on Japan from
Washington. 1t was just the be-
ginning. Before long the Japs at
home may count on even more ter
rifying daily doses of what they
saw and felt yesterday. Gen.
Arnold will operate the superbomb-
ers under direction of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff from push buttons
in the Pentagon. The world will
be the field of the B-29, the NIGH
tiest air weapon ever used.
The output of Super Fortresses is
Boeing plant at Wichita has been
in quantity production for some
time. 1t is the first of the six huge
plants engaged in the program to
reach volume output. While some
of the other plants are larger and
may be expected in time to pro-
duce more, the Kansas operation of
the company which developed the
superbomber is still the principal
source of 29S.
Quantity Output Nears.
Boeing's other new plant at Rem
ton, Wash, originally built to make
the huge Boeing flying boat Sea
Ranger for the Navy, is fast ap-
preaching the stage of quantity
output of B-29s. The Boeing home
plant at Seattle also is being con-
verted to 29s from the manufacture
of Flying Fortresses, in which it set
heavy bomber production records.
Fortresses will continue to be pro-
duced in undiminished numbers at
the Douglas Aircraft Co. and the
Lockheed Aircraft Corp. factory A,
The huge Bell Aircraft Co. at
Marietta, Ga, is beginning to pro-
duce B-29s in quantity and, in addi-
tion, is assembling sections made
elsewhere. Glenn l.. Martins plant
at Omaha, Nebr., is not very far be-
hind the Bell operation. A Fisher
Body factory in Cleveland, also new,
will play a major role in the pro-
gram by making subasSemblies to be
put together in other plants.
Engines for the Super Fortresses
are being built by the Wright Aero
nautical Corp, the designers, and
by the Dodge Division of the Chrys-
lei. Corp. The Dodge plant at Chi
cago, built especially for this pro-
gram, is the largest single unit man
ufacturing plant in the country, The
four B-29 engines develop 1900
horsepower each.
The B-29 manufacturing program
is described as dwarfing anything
previously attempted in the annals of
aviation, including the huge pro-
grams so far undertaken in this
war. Literally hundreds of subcon-
tractors, suppliers and vendors are
engaged in it, besides the six great
plants already described.
Nearly half of the approximately
$4,000, 900 900 the Nation will spend
this year for munitions will be paid
out for aircraft and related equip
ment, and a stable portions of that
will be exuended for B-29s. The
Army has placed more responsibility
on the B-29 than ever before was
given a weapon untried in battle,
but thousands of tests indicate the
big craft will fully live up to eX-
pectations.
Workers in the Boeing Wichita
plant. where correspondents were
allowed to inspect the Super Fortress
thoroughly, gave the unmistakable
impression they had acquired the
"knoW-hoW" to do the job before
them. The plant was running
smoothly. The huge planes were
rolling off the assembly line in amaz-
ing numbers when 1t is considered
the BIG is the worlds most compli-
Gated machine and the Wichita
plant had been in operation only a
little over year.
An indication Of the tremendous
capacity of this Nation to produce
planes was shown at Wichita Boe-
ing, until recently, had been using
its smaller and original plant at
Kansas City exclusively for produc-
ton of great number of its own
design Of primary trainer-the Kay
det. Some 10000 trainers had been
made in the plant. Company officials
had the trainer schedule reduced to