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PURSUIT PLANES BUILT IN U.S.

INFERIORITY AT HIGH ALTITUDES (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 19. Giving a warning that in the coming months battles may be lost and jrusning defeats may be suffered, the United States Office of War Information in a 10,000 word report to the public designed to dispel the fog and confusion concerning American planes says: m truth lies between the two extremes o adverse and favourable criticisms. The report specifically says that tne Curtis Kittyhawk (P4O), the Bell Airacobra (P 39 and the Mustang standard fighters have many good points, out they are definitely inferior to the foreign types in high altitude combat. Improved types are in production, but have not yet been tested in battle. Ine chief fault of the American fighters is the tardy and incomplete development of the Allison liquid cooled motor. For daylight precision bombing tne Flying Fortress (Boeing B 17) and the Liberator (Consolidated 824) are unsurpassed. The medium bombers, the Mitchell B2s’s and the Martin 826 s have no competitors. The latest Navy fighter, dive-bomber and torpedo types already in action are the best carrier planes in the world. Other types of patrol, reconnaissance, cargo transport and fire-spotters are satisfactory in quality within their own fields. TEST OF BATTLE The report emphasizes that only results in battle will provide valid dards of criticism. No full appraisal will be possible until the war has been w ol h The alternate superiority of the United States and Britain in various types has given the United Nations as a team a better choice of weapons than the enemy. , The report declares that the United States aircraft industry and services are steadily developing specialized aircraft of high and, in some cases, sensational promise of battle performance. The report cautions, however, that the recent air victories, especially in the South Western Pacific, may have resuited primarily from specialized tactical situations which will not always be so favourable. It warns of possible coming defeats when it says: * When we meet reversals and the pull to victory seems to grow long and hard Americans will do well if they indulge to the full their genius for critical selfanalysis.” . , While asserting that America has lagged behind in developing high altitude fighter planes, the report says that the American machines have valuable weapons in Russia and North Africa where they are used at relatively low altitudes. It points out that in China, where the American Volunteer Group flew P4o’s, with the aid of the excellent Chinese air raid warning system the group destroyed 218 Japanese planes with a loss of 84 American machines, but that in the February raid on Darwin eight out of 10 P4o’s were shot down by the Japanese, mostly because of the lack of warning. Likewise in the Philippines the army aircraft were hampered because the air raid warning system was disrupted by “fifth columnists” before it had once functioned. Falling back continuously on inadequate fields and inadequate facilities all through the Japanese drive to the South-west Pacific the P4o’s performance was decidedly less than standard. NEW FIGHTER TYPES In the vital European theatre appraisal of the P 39 and P 49 compels the conclusion that they are not right for operation under today’s high altitude tactics in England. Two newer fighter types the twin-engined Lockheed P3B, the Lightning, and the single-engined Republic P 47, the Thunderbolt, are in production and show great promise as high altitude pursuit planes. Yet the public should be warned that neither plane is a complete answer to the fighter problem and that probably no plane ever will be. Discussing the supremacy within their own fields of the Flying Fortress and Liberator bombers, the report disputes the claims of superiority sometimes made for the Lancaster bomber, which carries a heavier bomb-load, because it is designed to fly at a lower altitude and to carry less petrol. American planes, says the report, stripped for the same job could easily increase their bomb-load. While American air-cooled engines are generally regarded as world peers, the report says, the only liquid cooled engine of American design now in mass production and in general military use is the Allison. Its development, starting late, has been carried out under great difficulties and it has not yet caught up with its opposite numbers, Britain’s Rolls Royce and Germany’s Daimler Benz. SERVICE DISAGREEMENTS In reaching for an ideal air force the United States has been hampered by the impossibility of anticipating the specific demands of war and has also been hamstrung by disagreement in its own fighting services as to the weight and power to be wielded by air power. Despite this the United States went to war with a well integrated air force, but not all distributed with maximum effect. The prime specification for United States’ aeroplanes was the defence of America’s shores. This, more than any other factor, explains the American preoccupation with long-range bombers. This also practically explains the failure to develop a good interceptor capable of climbing rapidly at short notice. America’s entry into the war without such valuable equipment can be explained only by failure to give consideration to the possibility of full American participation in aerial warfare overseas. Subsidiary explanations are the shortage of development funds in peace-time years and the prevalent public faith that the United States

could avoid involvement in a foreign war. In the vast revision of ideas of design since the war began in Europe the United States owes a vast debt to the Allies, particularly to the British, and to the lessons they have brought to America from the battlefields. LOSSES OVER MALTA 114 Axis Planes In A Week (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 19. In the week ended last Saturday the enemy lost 114 aircraft in the assault on Malta for the British loss of 27 Spitfires, with 14 pilots saved. The enemy made some 1400 sorties against the island. Therefore approximately one hostile aircraft in 13 which set out from Sicily failed to return. This takes no account of the scores of others so crippled that they had little hope of getting home. Never before had the pilots destroyed so many enemy aircraft in one week around Malta. The Axis altogether lost 131 planes last week, of which 125 were shot down in the Middle East, three over Britain and three over Western Europe. The Royal Air Force lost 70, including 36 in Western Europe and 33 in the Middle East.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19421021.2.51

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Southland Times, Issue 24880, 21 October 1942, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,074

PURSUIT PLANES BUILT IN U.S. Southland Times, Issue 24880, 21 October 1942, Page 5

PURSUIT PLANES BUILT IN U.S. Southland Times, Issue 24880, 21 October 1942, Page 5

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