The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1945-02-22


S. Boutelle, vice president of Fair
child Engine and Airplane Corpora
ton and general manager of its air.
craft division.
In statement issued yesterday,
MIR. Boutelle declared that this new
concept of warfare, which will revise
logistics to make all personnel and
materiel airborne, will involve close
cooperation between designers of
aircraft and ordnance, with essential
compromises on each side.
Beyond question" DR.. Boutelle
said, "the most significant military
development of this war is the move
ment of troops, supplies, transport
equipment and frepower by air. Air
borne operations are not merely fast
er than those by land or sea. They
are a new method of warfare-a
method which nullifies the age-old
value of national borders lined with
cannon and troop emplacements.
I'VE have attacked the problem of
tons only in terms of improving our
aircraft, increasing their capacity,
speed and utility. Our entrance into
the war saw us with none but COM
mercial transport planes, hastily and
but partially adapted for the unique
requirements of military operations.
Today, we have special-purpose
gliders and at least one transport
plane designed from drawing board
to production-line for airborne duty,
Fairchild's C-32 Packet.
Cargo, not passengers, is the fore
most wartime air transport task.
One estimate indicates that cargo
makes up rs percent of the total load
being carried by army and navy
transport planes today. This fact
alone proves the fallacy of the long
held idea that commercial passenger
planes were sufficient to meet mill
tary demands in war.
I'VE have only just begun to con-
centrate on designing aircraft for the
single specific purpose of carrying
military equipment. We cannot yet
put our airborne units in the field
with weapons and transport equip
ment comparable in effectiveness to
those available to enemy ground
troops. Our airborne men, thus, must
fight at disadvantage disadvant-
age that may spell the difference be-
tween success and failure as it did
at Anthem.
"The aircraft designer must design
with the special size and weight re-
quirements of ordnance and ground
transport equipment clearly in mind
Both aircraft and ordnance designers
must make compromises to weld into
a perfect entity the airplane and the
cargo it is destined to carry. For
both, the movement of cargo by air
must be principal design criterion.
"Yet the years since 1925 have
seen a precisely opposite trend in
military equipment. The trend has
been to design and build guns,
trucks and tanks-to name a few of
the many Observation-Disclosures, larger
and stronger for low maintenance
and minimum replacement. And
during the war, the increasingly
rough usage given equipment has
only exaggerated the trend. When
ever a part has broken down, the
easy solution has ben to replace it
with part of greater weight or size.
"a pointed example is that of the
155-mm howitzer. When the C-82
was designed, the dimensions of the
howitzer, one of the hardest-hitting
weapons, were kept in mind. The
interior of the squarish fuselage was,
accordingly, made sufficiently large
to hold the howitzer. But by the
time the prototye airplane was COM
pleted, it became evident that, for
operation in sandy terrain, the how
itzer required larger tires. While
the small-tired 155-mm howitzer can
be carried by the C-82, the large
tired gun is two inches or so too
wide. 1t is obvious that if dimen-
sions had been established with air.
borne operations in mind the C-82
would have been designed two
inches wider.
$50 simple solution, however, is
rare, for often the increase in size
or weight is in an integral part of
the vehicle or weapon. A special
towing unit is added to a truck, or
heavier bumper or broader body.
Descending may permit the truck
to be carried by plane, but not for
quick use in combat. When air
borne troops land, they must be
ready to fight as soon as their feet
hit the ground Time cannot be
spared for reassembling guns or
transport vehicles.
Equipment and weapons can be