Evening star., 1951-01-21

mentS Is not likely to be settled
overnight. Meanwhile, the manu-
facturer is frantically trying to
hold his design and production
team on the payroll and he dare
not acquire huge stocks OF mate
rials and acres Of machine tools
for production when he has Moth
ing to produce. There is also the
threat of losing to the draft ca
pable young men already trained
in the complexities of modern air
craft construction, or losing them
to other companies who have re-
ceived orders and are in need of
skilled help.
Planes More Complex
Though this is a very late hour
for Uncle Sam to go shopping in
earnest for a modern air defense
force, he will find a far better Of
fering of samples in 1851 than he
did in 1917 when the shelves were
bare of American designed and
built combat aircraft. In 1941
there was selection Of a dozen or
so Army and Navy types with
good prospects but no guarantees
of immediate delivery i'll the great
numbers suddenly needed the
after Pearl Harbor. Yet
those types and newer ones built
by our aircraft industry were suf-
f1ciently good to launch an Of
fensive within two years in nearly
every part of the world. BY early
1914, Americas industrial ma
chine was humming with
production rate of battle
proved planes of more than 5000
a month and but for cutbacks
ordered as victory appeared in
sight. the total produced for that
year would have been more than
10000 instead of the actual Co.
318.
For the calendar year just end
ed, the aircraft industry filled
Government orders at an average
of around 300 military planes a
month. These included aircraft
designed specifically for combat
and also transports. helicopters.
trainers and other supporting
types necessary to the success Of
an air force. Most of these planes
were twice as complex. twice as
heavy and required about four
times as many man-hours per
plane as the ones built in 1914.
Naturally they cost more and
costs are still rising. There were
more than 2 million men and
women employed in aircraft
plants at the peak of production
for that war effort and in De-
cember, 1850, the number was
100000.
Research Didn't Stop
Therefore, just how much the
aircraft industry of today will be
expanded and to what size to
insure capacity to produce
$4,000 modern military planes a
year" is not yet known in detail.
However, since the size of the
product has doubled, the neces-
sary materials will need to be
doubled and at least million men
and women will need to undergo
more thorough and longer train
ing before they can undertake the
precision construction.
Opposite these pressing prob
lens Of expansion there is joy
supreme over the progress made
in research and development in
the past five years and just now
being fully recognized and appre-
ciated. Never has the display
window of Americas air arsenal
been so crowded with so many
types of modern high-perform-
ance combat planes and support
ing aircraft for so many different
missions as will be found there
today. Thirty-odd postwar de-
signed or developed planes. about
divided between Air Force
and naval types. some already
veterans of Korean combat opera
tions, are candidates for quantity
production.
Uncle Sam should be eternally
grateful that he is not now seeing
a display of military planes fresh
out of moth balls from the last
war. His general indifference to
long-range air defense planning
and plane building in the years
1946-1950 warrant no such
achievement. He should realize
this was accomplished under frus-
trating circumstances during the
war of unification with major
battles being waged for and
against absorbing the Marine
Corps into the Army; for and
against the B-36 and the super
carrier; for and against fat-trim-
ming with the butchers being un.
able in many instances to dis
tinguish fat muscle and bone; for
and against ambitions of starry
eyed air power zealots to dominate
the Nations defense. Also, there
was something about red herrings.
Far from public view, in their
laboratories and restricted test
flying bases, a professionally proud
group of practical airmen, able
scientists, experienced manufac-
turers and battle-tested air STRAIT
egists tried to ignore the rows 60
ing on out front and concentrated
on the problems of making the
transition from the Wright BROTH
ers' era of flying to the up-coming
Supersonic, superaltitude jet and
rocket propulsion age and the
adaptation of these new scientific
assets to military and naval avia-
ton for the Nations defense. And
to them, defending the Nation