POWER IN AIR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20049, 22 September 1939, Page 6

POWER IN AIR

BRITISH SUPERIORITY OUTPUT OF AEROPLANES FRENCH REVIVAL Full confidence in the capability of Great Britain to maintain the Royal Air Force at full strength in the field is expressed in a statement by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors issued in London on August 29. It is stated that Great Britain’s air power is incomparably stronger than it was in the autumn of last year, and in 12 months the child has become a giant able to hold a sure shield against an invader and to deliver tremendous blows in counter-offen-sive.

The output of warplanes has multiplied more than four times since the first two months of 1938, but that achievement tells only part of the story, it ig stated. Alternative springs of manufacture of all main types of combat aircraft have been tapped. Raw materials, aero* engines, airscrews, carburettors and a thousand and one essential items of equipment have also been made available in greatly augmented quantities.

There are indications that in recent months Great Britain’s output of military aircraft has reached levels that challenge comparison, and perhaps surpass, the achievement of any other nation. Such success would repeat history. Toward the end of the Great War the head of the German Army Air Service, as quoted in the German official history, referred to Ihe utter impossibility of coping with the British programme of construction. What Englishmen have done, Englishmen can do. Outbreak of war would coincide with a big step-up in output, and the machine so thoroughly tested in the past few months would move smoothly into high gear. From France comes another heartening story of revival, the statement continues. The astonishing power of recovery inherent in that great nation lias never been so clearly shown as in her re-establishment as a great aircraft-manufacturing country. Day by day her output of high-perform-ance aeroplanes climbs higher. Together the two countries can await with calm any demands upon their industrial organisation as on the unrivalled .skill and morale of their airmen.