A GAIN FOR THE ALLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 116, 13 November 1939, Page 8

A GAIN FOR THE ALLIES

The decision of the United Statet Government to permit sales of service type military machines to the Allies represents a new peril to the Germans, for it presumably means that the great "flying fortresses," the construction :of which has been one of the most closely guarded secrets of the U.SIA. will be available against the bNazis. This move - 'also represents a of forme* American policy, for- last year President Roosevelt refused permission to fill orders received from the, British Air Ministry. These orders . were lodged after the flight of the great "flying fortresses" from Miami to Buenos Aires and back again, a distance of 10,000 miles. When Britain, inquired about the possibility of purchasing the bombers President Roosevelt invoked a twenty-year-old statute, the Espionage Act of 1917, to hinder the export of the machines. The ban he then placed upon the shipment of the planes abroad was reported to be for itwo years, and was" desigded to last until the United States had completed its programme of re-armament, a programme which has grown materially in- the. last twelve months. .A few months ago a Boeing flying fortress., made a sub-stratosphere flight across the United States, covering the 2500 miles from Burbank, California, to New York in 9 hours 14 minutes, only 1 hour 46 minutes more than the record made by Howard Hughes in a specially-built plane which was described at the time as little more than a flying petrol tank. The crew wore lightweight summer clothing and were comfortable inside their electricallyheated cabin though the temperature outside was. sometimes 12 ;, degrees - below zero. All wore oxygen masks throughout the trip. This plane has a wing-spread of 105 ft, weighs 22 tons, and can carry four 20001b. bombs, as well as smaller ones. The greatest advance made by the new type is that is it now fitted with more highly supercharged engines equipped with a turbine blower which reaches its maximum efficiency at 30,000 ft, or higher. x A squadron of these planes, correctlynavigated, could drop about 36 tons of bombs on Berlin and not a German gun "or interceptor plane ■ would- be able to reach.them.