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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0223.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEERAND AIRSHIPS ;, ., FIRST AmoNAUT/CAfWEEKLr IN THE^WOJZLD •• FOUNDED WOO Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, 5.E.1 Telegrams : Tnnlitur, Selirt, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines). HERTFORD ST., COVENTRY.Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210.' GUILDHALL BUILDINGS,NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham.Telephone: Midland 2971. 2G0, DEANSGATE,MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester.Telephone; Blackiriars 4412. 26B, EKNFIELD ST.,GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: Ilifie, Glasgow.Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTIONBATES: Home and CanadiOther Countries: Year, £1Year, £1 13 0. 16 U. 0 months, 16j. 6d.6 months, IBs. M. 3 months, 8s. O.i.3 months, 1>8. t»d. No 1518. Vol. XXXIII. JANUARY 27, 1958. Thursdays, Price 6d. 7/?e Outlooks <: Shadow Production 4 • • - - •T HE other day a cynic remarked to us that the so- called "shadow factories" are well named, as the only things they have produced are shadows. Like other epigrams, that remark overstates the case consider- ably, but there is no denying the fact that so far the shadow factories have, generally speaking, failed to equal in production the remarkable speed with which they were built and equipped. Three weeks ago we said : '' The expansion and re-equip- ment of the R.A.F. is the most vital preoccupation of the British aircraft industry. One inay, perhaps, say that it ii- going on as well as could be expected, although the fact that Germany is believed to have produced 7,000 aero engines in 1937 and to be producing aircraft of all types at the rate of 400 per month gives no cause for com- placency." In some quarters that remark has been taken to mean that Flight is satisfied with the present rate of production. That is not so, as is proved in any case by the numerous occasions on which we have referred to the causes of delay. The expression was meant to indicate that the re-equip- ment of the R.A.F. was going on as well as could be expected by anyone who had taken the trouble to study the problems and face up to the difficulties. When the shadow factory scheme was announced Flight accepted it as a logical step, but did not under-rate the difficulties; we did not expect that all would be plain sailing, and that as soon as the factories were built and equipped a rapid and uninterrupted flow of aircraft and aero engines would follow. No one in close touch with realities could have been so ingenuously optimistic. If we had lived in an ideal world, the thing to do would nave been to let the "professional industry" produce tne more refined, and therefore more difficult types, °i engines and aircraft, leaving it to the shadow in- austry to make the less refined and more easily made types. But if we had lived in an ideal world there would ave been peace on earth and good will among men, and here would have been no panic expansion. The whole rouble is that for many years Great Britain thought she t d !n such a world, and she let her Air Force remain a ridiculously and dangerously low level. Successive Governments were to blame for living in this fool's paradise, and when the great awakening came Messrs. (the prefix' is descriptive) Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Anthony Eden, ably assisted by Lord Londonderry, had kept the aircraft industry on star- vation diet for so long that no sane person could expect it to be in a position to expand its production at a moment's notice. No trainer would ask an athlete who had been out of training for years suddenly to enter a contest and expect him to do well in it against men in full training. Yet that is virtually what the Cabinet asked the aircraft industry to do when it—very belatedly— decided that Great Britain would have to re-arm. What increased the difficulty of the problems was the fact that just about the same time the aircraft industry was changing over from forms of construction with which it was familiar to the so-called stressed-skin typ'e. The industry struggled manfully with its problems ; but can one wonder that it was more concerned with finding out how to build aircraft in the new way than with the ques- tion of whether or not this type of construction lent itself to mass-production? Against that, it may be argued that stressed-skin con- struction was not new ; that it had been used for a considerable time in America, and to a smaller extent in Germany. The answer to that is that while the British aircraft industry was kept struggling afong m a hand-to- mouth existence by the Government, if could not afford to experiment—certainly not to the extent of making such drastic changes in structural methods. Facing FactsO UR excuse for possibly wearying many Flight readers with ancient history which must, be well known is that it seems necessary to have the background correct if the picture of the present situation is to be true to life and to convey the proper perspective. Having examined how the present position has come about, one is better able to appreciate the folly of trying to lay .the blame on any one person, or set of persons, in the Air Ministry or outside it. The solution, unfortun- ately, is not as simple as that. Taking the charitable view, one may say that there have been, and are, short-
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