Evening star., 1944-05-03
New Pratt & Whitney &c" Engine Adds
Punch to Army and Navy Fighting Planes
Advanced Double Wasp to Give
Thvnderbolt, corsoir, HsIIeot
"Greoter Performance"

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Afmy and Navy
last month joined forces in partially unveilinr
the newest weapon in the battle of production.
1t was the three and one-half million square
foot engine plant here Gone of the largest in
the world) operated without profit or loss by
Pratt 4 Whitney Aircraft Corporation of
Missouri for the United States Navy.
In this, which the Navy called "its No.
priority plant" is being built newly devel.
oped Pratt & Whitney engine described by
Rear Admiral Dewitt c. Ramsey, chief Of
the Bureau of Aeronautics, as "mus for
victory" 1t is the "C'' model of the Pratt &
Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp.
High-ranking Army and Navy officers
stressed the importance of the increased
horsepower in the new engine.
Thunderbolt to Get C Engine
Pointing out that air power is world power.
Brigadier General Edwin S. Perrin, USAAF.
declared that "it is clear to many of us that
horsepower is airpower." The new c engine.
he revealed, will be installed in the Republic
Thunderbolt which already has "hung up
such glorious record" with an earlier model
of the Double Wasp. The new Thunderbolt
with the new engines will take the measure
OF anything the enemy can produce in the
near future, he said.
Admiral Ramsey emphasized the solemn
responsibility of maintaining a consistent
technical lead over our adversarics." The R.
28OO-C, he declared, cannot be matched in
the power-weight ratio by any products I
know of at the present time that may flow
from the production resources of Mr.. Hitler
and Mr.. TOTO. Normally we rate the c en-
gine at z, 100 horsepower. But we have found
that we get greatly increased horsepower
by using water injection developed by Pratt
& Whitney Aircraft"
Earmarked For Corsair and HelIcat
The Admiral said that every time he picked
up an airplane production schedule he found
more airplares depending on that engine Il
am not at liberty to tell you all the fighting
aircraft for which this engine is earmarked,"
he said.
General Perrin has already given you Z
clue to the Army's keen interest in the 28OO-c,
Perhaps you can get a general idea of tho
Nays interest when tell you that such
famous types as the Eau Vought Corsair
and F6F Grumman Hellcat fighters, already
the scourges of the Pacific, will reach even
greater heights of performance with this new
Double Wasp engine. Others so new that
am not at liberty to disclose names or identify.
ing symbols also will be powered by your
engine"
More Manpower Needed
Kansas City and its people were singled out
for praise in undertaking project of this
size in an area which is not "the traditional
home of precision tool work any more than
New England is the home of 10,000-acre
wheat farms and great packing houses"
The plant is scheduled to go into full
production about year from now when it
should reach monthly output of almost
three million horsepower including power
sections to be sent to East Hartford for as
sembly there.
To achieve this goal, however, it was de-
clared that more manpower must be obtained.
Approximately 200 new employees are need
ed every day until there are many more thou
sands building these engines at Kansas Citys
mammoth new plant.