YET MORE PLANES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 43, 25 January 1944, Page 6

YET MORE PLANES

AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION

BOMBERS ' AND FIGHTERS

Beaufighters are now being built in Australia, and the manufacture of a heavy bomber type is in prospect.: As 500 Beaufort bombers had been made, the manufacturers were able to avoid a tremendous amount of tooling and, jigging in producing the Beaufighter. Preparations for producing the heavy bomber are well on the way, and -there will not ba the same teething troubles as in the case of the Beaufort. Never again must Australia risk dependence on oversea supplies of aircraft, says the Prime Minister,, Mr Curtin. In this view the fundamentals of a satisfactory Australian air force, civil avia-? tion resources and l an aircraft industry capable of supplying, both. The Advisory War Council had agreed that the building of heavy bombers was a sound opment of the Australian aircraft industry, he said, because it was an interim step towards a high-class transport type, needed after the war. A strong air force was the most satisfactory means by which a *small population could defend a large territory. It offered an island continent defence against superior sea power, and. either sea or air invasion. It gave mobility to defence within the large continent and civil aviation,, apart from providing resources for defence was the only solution of many Australian transport problems. Having started on trainers, the Australian industry would reach the complete range with the production of the heavy bomber.