FIGHTING PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1939, Page 9

FIGHTING PLANES

MASS PRODUCTION METHODS IN BRITAIN INSPECTION OF NEW FACTORY. ONE OF BEST EQUIPPED IN WORLD. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. December 9. An aircraft factory recently opened to inspection by British and foreign journalists is described as "one of the best-equipped and largest in the world.” What only three years ago was waste land is now the site of an immense factory in which the famous improved Blenheim Bomber is produced, and where, except for engine instruments and armament, all component parts are actually manufactured. ' The design of this bomber is such as to give a great speed and high performance. Although light, being four and a half tons unladen, the design by spreading stress enables the machine to withstand a severe strain. There are over 250.000 rivets in the finished product. The course of manufacture is likened to a series of hops as the growing aeroplane is carried forward from stage to stage of completion by an overhead railway, finally leaving the factory through the huge doors leading directly on to the testing field. The factory -is a self-contained unit, having a power plant, hospital and housing estate. It is also building up its own supply of machine toolmakers. The visitors' expressed themselves deeply impressed by the organisation which has transformed aeroplane making from a slow proceess info a massproduction industry, now comparable with the most efficient motor-car manufacturing.