American Plane Production

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 225, 21 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

American Plane Production

AMERICA S shortage of military aeroplanes may have statesmen waving their arms, columnists viewing with alarm and commentators frothing at the mouth, but in the midst of this welter of shrieks and jitters you can find at least two calm and unperturbed individuals. They are production genius William S. Knudsen and General Henry H. Arnold, U.S. Army Air Chief. While everybody else has been excitedly screeching about the lack of aeroplanes in the United States defence, these two have been quietly doing something tangible about it. They have been making a close investigation of the aircraft factories of Western America and urging manufacturers to speed up production for the much-talked of national defence against aggressors.

Aeroplanes can hardly be expected to •jxcite General Arnold, for he learned to fly in the first rickety bamboo-and.-bed-ehept contraption that the Wright brothers built for the United States Army, and has been flying them ever since—right flown to the present juncture in Uncle Sam's annals. Production problems cannot upset the monumental calm of William S. Rnudsen because he has seen automobile production grow from a dozen rattle-traps a year to millions—and, besides men like Knudsen are not the excitable kind. They were interviewed, while at breakfast one morning In Los Angeles just before starting on their second day's tour of Southern California aircraft plants. Knudsen is supervising the spending of billions of dollars f or 'United States defence, and General. Arnold's judgment goes : so fir as military aircraft are concerned. r Qy Next April ' "Some of these fellow* seem v to think we are not building any aeroplanes in this country," said Knudsen. ... "Well, we'll be building a: lot more; pretty soon, .and we're 1 doing pretty well right now." "The army," said General Arnold, "will, have it* 6500 'plane: programme, finished by next April—weeks ahead of schedule. That means 5500 aeroplanes with pilots, ground crews and equipment to match. We will be. well on our way toward the 15,000 'planes, equal to any in the. world —all you have to do is to lee what our 'planes are doing over in- Europf io know that." v * "vetw«efTbites they talked about what they had seen so far on their "tour, and what they were going to see. "I am just learning about aeroplanes," Knudsen grunted, adding: "When we get back to Washington we will have the navy in, and thjm.we will eo-ordinate the demands

. of the army and navy to avoid confusion and speed up production. Too many factories are wasting their time on a lot 1 of different types of 'planes. Saw one i factory where they were building I*l i different types. Over in Germany they ( just tell the Dormer people to keep turning out Dornier 17's as fast as they ' c«n turn them out—they don't monkey with a lot of other stuff. That is why : they can build 2000 aeroplanes a month." The conversation got off to other types of 'planes, and what the problem wowfcl be if hemisphere defence should eventuate for Uncle Sam and the rest of the | groups of countries in the New World. About Big 'Planes "Our observers are over there in Europe," said General Arnold, "and we know just what they are doing—best types of -'planes and so on. Our stuff is certainly not behind theirs." They fell to talking about big 'planes —huge ones. "Humph," feaid the practical Knudsen, "if they make them much bigger the defence will not tieed machine guns or shrapnel—they will be able to hit them with a 10-inch gun. They will be so big they cannot miss them." General Arnold launched into a set of figures on production, which Knudsen verified with bobbing of his head—all adding up' to the fact that, with the automotive- industry helping on production of engines and tools,- the aeroplane output will be going full blast by next spring. "Very soon," grinned Knudsen, "it will be like the automobile business—they , will have to worry about the secondhand market." World's Fastest Interceptor The mobilised might of the West's military aviation industry whirled in review before Mr. Knudsen and Major Arnold during the day. The two men, in whose han&s lie the air preparednessof the United States, were on the move throughout the day, but their first official act was to inspect the -world's fastest interceptor-pursuit 'plane just completed for the U.S. Air Corps at the Lockheed , factory in Burbank, Southern California, i The tiny, silver wasp-like 'plane is believed to be the world's deadliest ; fighter, according to General Arnold, chief i of the United States Army Air Corps. ' It is designed to cruise 460 miles an hour, but refinements, have been added since the first experimental model was built. ! and the army hopes to bring its speed i up to 500 miles an hour. Each of its two Allison motors has more than 1000 horse-power —just how 1 much more is one of those military Secrets. It has a cruising radius of 1100 1 miles and will climb to 4000 feet altitude i in one minute. It will be armed with four i v.50-calibfe machine-guns and one one-. ; inch cannon. The wingspan is 48 feet i and. the length 38 feet. - After also ini specting bombers and other production ■ in the Lockheed factory, Knudsen and General Arnold paid a short call upon Howard Hughes, speed flyer and designer of fast military types of aircraft. Mightiest Bomber for England lJuring the day General Arnold took , occasion to permit the first official photoi graphs of a giant bomber being built ' for the Air Corps at the Douglas Aircraft I. Factory at- Santa Monica. The giant L 'plane, designed to be the mightiest milii fary bomber in the world, though still , in the course of formation, is rapidly . taking shape. Just how many of this ) type will be purchased depends upon I the results of its teste, General Arnold • intimated. Orders for the powerful little Lockheed interceptor, known' as the P-38, already 1 number more than 900. Many of these i are for England, it was indicated, btit the ; army official 'admitted • that the United t States Air Corps has placed its largest i order for pursuit 'planes with the Lock- , heed factory. The is in production i with the goal set at 100 'planes a month

within a year. The tiny 'plane was almost ready for a secret test by a crew of special flyers from Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, according to. Major K. B. Wolfe, chief production engineer for the army at that point. Seek Higher Air Speeds To spur research in 400-600-mile-an-hour aircraft speeds, two Los AngeleS regional manufacturers have been hastening work on a pair of wind-tunnels. These, with the ten-foot test equipment at the California Institute of Technology, 1 will give Southern California the largest commercial concentration of such test apparatus in the United States. Most ambitious will be the tunnel currently under construction at the new ; Northrop Aircraft, Incorporated, plant at , Hawthorne. Exactly the size of the Cal- ( tech machine, which has been the major experimental laboratory for the 225,000,000-dollars California industry for years, this tunnel will enable Northrop to accomplish 95 per cent of the tests formerly accomplished at the technical school. Overworked, with many a new model literally standing in line for an opportunity to enter the wind chute, the Caltech tunnel generates a 200 miles per hour artificial gale and accommodates an Bft miniature 'plane. Northrop's will hold a similar model, although the velocity will reach only 150 miles per hour. At the Vultee aircraft plant in Downey a tunnel furnished for four-foot models is almost completed. Here W. C. Rockefeller, young chief of aerodynamics and a former associate of Howard Hughes, will experiment with designs aiming, at eventual 600 miles per hour speeds. Research in this tunnel, whose 160 ft series of passageways will house a 200 miles per hour gale, may point the way to overcoming the "pressure wave" problem, which to-day apparently' limits . aircraft speeds. Mr. Rockefeller predicts that conventionally designed 'planes probably will not exceed 600 miles an hour—approaching the 760 miles per hour speed of both sound and pressure waves—until a method of propulsion other than to-day's engine-with-propeller is devised. Rocket slip experimentation, he says, already has given benefits to aviation. At high speeds, .the extra forward power provided by an engine's jet exhaust adde perceptibly to miles per hour. In the Vultee tunnel, refinements in aerodynamics will especially be studied— from engine cowlings to air scoops.