WAR NOTES

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 September 1917, Page 2

WAR NOTES

4000 AEROPLANES A MONTH. OUTPUT THAT WE CAN EASILY ATTAIN. (By C. G. Grey, Editor of Aeroplane.) Tlie question is asked whether it is possible to turn out 4000 aeroplanes a month, th e assumption being that such an output would be sufficient to give us permanent superiority in the air. Such an output is quite possible if iatelligently organised. First of all, it is necessary to define what one means by an aeroplane, because obviously it will take longer and will absorb more labour to turn out a big bombing machine, than a little single-seater scout. Therefore we may as well fix a standard for calculation, and the standard should obviously be the ordinary two-seater, machine, such as is used for training purposes or reconnaissance or photograph, and sometimes —for lack of something better —for, bomb-dropping. It is important to remember that a big bomb-dropping machine will carry as much as two tons of bombs, and may therefore, be reckoned as being worth as much for, its job as six ordinary two-seaters, carrying perhaps 500ttbs or 6001bs. weight of bombs ap;|ece. Consequently, if it costs six times as much in man power and material to build as a smaller machine, and does six times as much work, it may fairly be counter as six machines in our calculations.

It used to be a kind of accepted standard that it took 4000 man-hours to build an ordinary two-seater aeroplane. That is to say, a factory emplaying 40 men, working ten hours a day, should produce an aeroplane a day This works out nearly enough right in practice, for a 400-man factory ought to turn out six machines a week, and a llittle shop with forty men might do one machine every ten days. That is independent of the engine. Now 4000 machines a month means 1000 a week or roughly 160 a day. Allowing a 10-hour day we find we have to turn out 16 machines an hour. We have already assumed that one machine costs 4000 man-hours, or theoretically that 4000 men could build one aeroplane in one hour. Therefore, if we want to produce 16 aeroplanes in one hour, we shall need 64,000 men. Whence we deduce that 64,000 men emplloyed on aeroplane work can produce 6 machines an hour, or 160 machines a day, or 960 a week, or 3940 a month, which is near enough to our demands. Sixty-four thousand men does not seem a startlingly large number for a whole industry, but it must be remembered that those are only the men employed in the actual aeroplane works, building the aeroplanes and putting them together. Over and above them which are all the people who make the things which are "raw material." If one started to separate out these people employed on aircraft parts from the other hands in the same employ one would find them running into tens of thousands. Therefore, on the assumption that 04,000 men would be needed for the purely aircraft work of producing 4000 aeroplanes a month, one would not be far out in reckoning that something Hike a quarter, of a million people would have to be concerned in one way or another in turning out 4000 aeroplanes a month. Of course, it can be don e quite well, though it is aliways more difficult to find material than hands for the work. Still, that difficulty could be overcome. Also, by Heaving the design of aeroplanes and their parts and fittings in the hands of experienced and capable designers we could use much more common materials than are used to-day when a lot of young men—extraordinarily clever in their own estimationinsist on the use of special materials.