AIR FREIGHTERS.

Evening Star, Issue 24293, 7 September 1942, Page 2

AIR FREIGHTERS.

Early in July the Glenn Martin flying ship Mars made a successful test flight oyei> Baltimore. This seventy-ton aircraft is the largest flying ship yet produced. It was reported that Mr Martin. her constructor and designer, had ready for 'building a craft of almost twice that size, and he visualised one of much greater capacity still. Tho last War stimulated aviation development in a remarkable way, but it was small comparecV with the strides that have been made in the last three years. An enterprising engineer-shipbuilder, Mr Henry J. Kaiser, has gone further than his fellow-Amcrican, with a proposal to build in 19-13 at least 5,000 seventy-ton flying boats similar to the Mars. To many people Mr Kaiser’s idea sounded fantastic, but his record as a builder and engineer is impressive, for ho carried through the great Boulder Dam project in record time, and he cut the time for the delivery of a Victory ship to one-sixth of the average for freighters in tho last war. To-day it is reported from New York that a committee which lias been investigating Mr Kaiser’s plan for the mass production of giant cargo-carrying planes has submitted an unfavourable report to Mr Donald Kelson, the chairman of tho War Production Board.

It is not suggested that Mr Kaiser’s scheme is impossible of fulfilment, but practical difficulties stand in the way. These are contained in the problem of obtaining the huge quantities of metals that would be necessary without interfering with the current war production programme. The ultimate decision will presumably rest with Mr Nelson, who will first confer with Mr Kaiser and high naval and military officers, but the suggestion is that the engineer-ship-builder is ahead of his time. _ One factor that is against his plan is the fact that America’s present aircraft programme includes a large proportion of cargo planes. It may he assumed, therefore, that expert opinion is that it would not he feasible to put into operation Mr Kaiser’s ideas without diverting expert workmen and essential materials from work that is now in hand. Whether Mr Kaiser’s proposals are turned down or not. they give an indication of what may he expected in the near 'future, and one prediction is that hr the end of this year cargo cartj,ef. hr air will ho the biggest single development in the American war effort.