CARGO AIRCRAFT

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 26 October 1942, Page 2

CARGO AIRCRAFT

PLANS IN AMERICA. VALUE TO THE FORCES. Disregarding the many extravagances that have been uttered and written about . the possibilities of ireight-carrying aircraft, a construction programme of which appears to be taking shape in America under the dynamie infiuence of Mr Henry J. Kaiser, there remains much within the scope of early achievement to give new horizons in the supply services of America's far-flung combat forces. Already (states the New Zealand Herald) there is mass production of planes which can carry at high speed military personnel and equipment over long distances. These are not the giant planes associated with the name of Kaiser and, while they save ship tonnage, their chief value is their ability rapidly to build up the right kind of combat strength where it is needed. Kaiser dreams of turning out large numbers of cargo-carrying planes similar to the 70-ton Glenn Martin fiyingboat Mars. Experts calculate that such planes, allowing for toad weather, could make 50 trips a year on a 12,000 miles route, carrying 20 tons of freight on each trip. Thus one plane could carry 1000 tons of freight a year. Fifteen machines could do the work of one 15,000-ton ship. If they were used to supply widely-seattered forces, obviously their relative value would be greater. INITIAL PROGRAMME. A recent despatch from Los Angeles states that Kaiser and Howard Hughes have agreed to pool their resources for an initial programme of 500 of these heavy cargo planes. This is a long way from the ideas of an American B.B.C. commentator who talked of a "projected" fleet which could transport 500,000 troops across the Atlantic overnight. Howard Hughes, an aviator, who circled the globe in 1938, is an aeronautical engineer who created the Constellation passenger plane that is being built by the Lockheed plant. Kaiser is an industrial genius. He first gained prominence in the cement business. Later by linking six companies he secured the contract for the Boulder Dam, a flood-control, irrigation and hydro-electric project in the Rocky Mountains, which was finished 18 months ahead of schedule. Eventually he entered the shipbuilding industry on the western seaboard of the United States. From his Richmond yards, a little over a month ago, a 10,000-ton Liberty freighter was launched in 24 days after the keel was laid, and since then more remarkable speed records have been reported, all due to system and pre-fabrication. At the launching of a Liberty ship at the end of August, Kaiser said he was about to visit Washington to present his proposals for the manufacture of cargo aeroplanes. These were being jointly made by Howard Hughes and himself. OTHER REQUIREMENTS. The orfiy question to be decided, said the Washington correspondent of the Daily Mail, Mr Walter Farr, at this time was, could Kaiser find the material to build these planes vithout interfering with the present American bomber and fighter production? "Kaiser's arrival in Washington and his vigorous demand that something be done at once have prompted a re-examination of the situation to see how many materials are available," said Mr Farr. "This reexamination has led to important new discoveries, and Kaiser will very likely get his materials. He is the sort of maii who does not just ask for things, but tells you where he thinks he can get them. "It looks very much as if Kaiser's mammoth air-freight fleet idea will come to fruition. He promises the first of these 70-ton flying merchantmen by late spring in 1943 if he i starts now. Then, he says, he can ' cut down the number of man-hours required to build them."