Evening star., 1950-12-10

of being advised a deal was to be
undertaken and later notified of
the results before the public an
nouncement.
Wright Aeronautical, best known
as the builder of "Lindbergh's
engine"-that rugged, reliable
/ WhirlWind 225-horsepower nine
cylinder radial air-cooled power
plant-produced powerful engines
for bombers and transports in
heavy volume for the armed serv-
ices, but when the cutback came
in 1945, it had no established entry
in the turbo-jet and turbo-prop
competitive market. The turbo-
jet engine. originating in England,
was flown over here in deepest
secrecy in the fall of 1941 and
the task of developing it for
American combat planes was given
by the Government to General
Electric and Westinghouse, pri-
marily because of their long
experience with turbines. Also,
the Government did not want to
saddle the old-line American en-
gine companies with experimental
work on something so entirely
new and run the risk of slowing
down production of conventional
piston engines for combat.
After vi day, Curtiss- Wright,
the largest aviation enterprise in
the country, began to undergo
management and policy changes.
These eventually resulted in the
dropping of aircraft production,
with which the Curtiss element
had been identified before the
First World War for both military
and civil use and placed greater
emphasis On engine and propeller
production. The long and some
what turbulent period of reorgan-
ization, while under way, was not
conducive to creating a turbo-jet
or turbo-prop engine that could
be regarded as competitive with
the British who were enjoying a
lead of several years over Amer
lean engine companies.
Competitor Made Deal
The corporation reorganization
was about completed by late
summer of this year and Curtiss-
Wright, taking another look at
the competitive field here, saw
clearly what it already knew, viz:
That its closest engine competitor,
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, build
ers of the famous Wasp family
of cooled engines, had already
made a deal with Rolls-R Royce,
Ltd, of England for production
rights to the very successful Meme
and Tay turbo-jet engines and
was also working on new designs
of it's own. 1t also observed that
General Electric, Westinghouse
and Allison Division of General
Motors were deep in jet engine
development and production for
the United States Air Force and
Navy.
Two new shrewd. fast-moving
corporation experts were now
guiding the Curtiss- Wright Cor
poration, having succeeded the old
regime headed for many years by
Guy w. Vaughan, now retired. Paul
v. Shields of the Wall Street firm
of Shields & Co. and prominent
In New York Stock Exchange
affairs was board chairman and
Roy T. Hurley, formerly director
of manufacturing engineering at
Ford Motor Co., was the opera
tional president. He has been
operating at high speed through
out the divisions of the corpora
ton ever since.
Wealthy as the Wright Aero
nautical was, all that money
couldn't buy talent to create over
night a line of competitive jet
engines for immediate American
military business and future COM
mercial needs. So Mr.. Hurley and
a staff of engine experts went to
England to see the annual aircraft
show of the Society of British
Aircraft Constructors, held at
Marlborough, from September 5
to 10. This was Britain's day not
only to point with pride to its
progress in postwar aircraft and
engine creations. but to take
orders for the sale of same to
approved foreign visitors. Mr..
Hurley and his group stayed on
after the show and when they
finally returned to America in
October, they had the Armstrong
Siddeley all-powerful Sapphire
turbo-jet which had just been