BIG ORDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1941, Page 6

BIG ORDER

FOR ADDITIONAL FLYING FORTRESSES OF AN IMPROVED TYPE. HEAVIER. FASTER & MORE POWERFUL. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. September 7. A great impression has been caused in London by a report from Washington that the United Slates War Department has placed orders totalling £86,099,000 with the Boeing and Douglas aircraft companies, and the accompanying reports that these orders are for many hundreds of new model "flying fortresses.” The existing Boeing fortresses are having conspicuous success in the R.A.F. by bombing important targets in German territory and are I’eported to fly at such a height that they are virtually out of sight and sound of the ground so that the first notice of their presence is screaming bombs out of an apparently clear sky. The new model, which is reported to be now ready for mass production, is evidently an improvement on the present fortress as it is said to weigh 30 tons instead of 24. According to these United States reports, it has a poweroperated gun turret in the tail for defence in any direction and similar turrets at both top and bottom of the fuselage. Its speed is also said to be greater than the previous 300 miles an hour.