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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1016.PDF
300 FLIGHT. APRIL 14, 1938. " FlitjM " photographs Some milestones in production : From top to bottom arethe Gloster Gamecock—last of the wooden fighters in service ; the metal Siskin ; the Gladiator, probably thelast of the metal biplanes ; and the Hurricane, which, although one of the fastest military aircraft in the world'is fabric-covered. the Ak Ministry had to be enlarged to deal with the biggei programme. The additional staffs were partly obtained by •offering individuals in the industry greater inducements than their firms were able to give them, thus depleting the staffs of the firms and making it still more difficult for them to -get going with their production. Towards the end of the first year of the expansion period it became obvious that the output of aircraft was nothing like so large as had been hoped for and scheduled. No real investigation or consultation with the industry was made to discover and remedy the difficulties, but thje officials of the firms were Jaullied and told they did not know their jobs because they were unwilling to enlarge their works, increase their plant, and spend large sums of money without having any proper guarantees as to con- tracts over a period of years. It was not until about eighteen months after the decision to expand that a proper financial basis was agreed between the Government and the industry. During this eighteen months two brain- waves emerged from the Air Ministry: (1) to start shadow factories; (2) to create a production department. The shadow factory scheme consisted mainly of two sections. One group of factories was to make units for a particular size and type of engine. In this case representatives of some of the larger motor car manufacturers were called together and asked to produce a scheme. The plan they produced was put into operation and has worked fairly well, although it is not properly balanced in that some firms, being too far ahead of others, have had to put their workpeople on short time. Unfamiliar Work In the second section of the scheme, two of the large car manufacturers were asked to put down shadow factories for the purpose of building airframes. A particular design of aircraft was allotted to each of these factories, a new' factory building erected, plant ordered, etc. According to' statements in the Press, the first airframe should be de-; livered out of No. 1 Factory towards the end of this year, and the first out of No. 2 Factory some time in 1939—some three years after the shadow factory scheme was-decided on, and certainly a year longer than it should have taken had the work been planned properly. Incidentally, about the time that the shadow factory scheme was evolved, a number of firms were hauled up individually before the Minister of Air, who slated them for the delay in output. They pointed out their difficulties with regard to finance, supplies of labour, materials, plant, and so forth. As previously stated, some six months after these inter- views satisfactory arrangements were made with regard to finance, but practically nothing was done to assist firms with regard to supply of labour, materials and plant, and it was not until early this year, some three years after the expansion started, that the Government approached Organ- ised Labour to assist them with the scheme. * The arrangement regarding the shadow factories having been made some months prior to the finance arrangements referred to above, the industry found that when they wanted to purchase certain machine tools in this country they would have to wait many months, as the shadow factories had booked all immediate deliveries; actually, many of these machine tools were delivered to shadow factories and stood idle for some months, whereas, if they had been allotted to the existing factories, they could have been put into production work straight away. The matter was taken up with the Air Ministry, but the reply was that the shadow factories had to have priority. The formation of a production department at the Air Ministry was undoubtedly a step in the right direction, but again it was a good idea mismanaged. It is essential for the staff of such a department to have experience in the technical and production problems of modern aircraft; they should be able to help the firms with constructive suggestions, supplies of labour, plant, materials, equip- ment; they should be able to guide and advise the tech- nical, inspection, and contracts departments at the Air Ministry to ensure that the actions of these departments did not in any way increase the difficulties of the firms. It would have been far more helpful to the industry if
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