AIR TRANSPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1942, Page 4

AIR TRANSPORT

EXPANDED CONSIDERABLY AND GREATER DEVELOPMENT IN PROSPECT. FACTS GIVEN BY GENERAL ARNOLD. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, August 5. Lieutenant-General Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Force, testifying to the Senate Military Sub-Committee, said the output of cargo-carrying planes was being stepped up in an all-out programme. The ratio of engine allotments to transport planes for the second half of 1942 would be 21 per cent of all multi-engined bombers and thirty per cent of all bombing planes with a comparable range. This country was now using some of its longrange bombers for cargo transport and a certain percentage of bomber construction would be diverted to longrange cargo planes. General Arnold, replying to the chairman of the sub-committee (Senator Lee), said, he would welcome a proposal for the mass construction of aerial freighters, using rolling assembly lines and shipyards, provided materials now going into Liberty ships could be utilised. He said the Army favoured any programme not interfering with the present rounded plans for a balanced air fleet. He would not welcome any plan which would deplete the supply of critical materials for plane construction.

General Arnold revealed that existing air transportation would soon be carrying 2,500,000 pounds of freight weekly, compared with a pre-war level of 174,000 pounds.