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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1037.PDF
APRIL II, 1940 329 ALLIED PURCHASES IN U.SA. The North American NA-35 primary trainer. It is ic^.^^ Uiai 1 has signed a contract for i,6oo of these machines for New York, February 25.T HE American aviation industry, beneficiary of twoyears of expansion unprecedented for a nation to whom war is not yet a next-door neighbour, will beginto operate at close to capacity for the first time since World War I, when promised orders totalling a quarter of a billionpounds are finally placed by the British and French Purchasing Commissions. Something like 2,500 operational and training machineshave been ordered in the past year. There has been a lull in the last few weeks, possibly while the New York buyingagents were waiting to see how much business could be done iu Italy (the Rome commission was reported to have leftItaly almost empty-handed, although negotiations are to be resumed), but now contracts for a further 8,000 aircraftof nearly a dozen different types are to be let. This has been rumoured for months, but an official announcementthat unusually large orders were to be placed has only just been made. The orders would carry well into 1941 as, it isbelieved, the American industry cannot deliver much more than 3,000 of these 8,000 craft this year, over and abovethose contracted for in the past. The Allied commissions have kept admirable silence asto types and numbers of aircraft ordered, but it has not been possible to keep this information altogether secret,as far too many people are concerned. So I will be betraying nothing not already known in American aviationcircles if I go into some detail. Fighters, Bombers, Boats The orders for Curtiss Hawk 75AS, Lockheed Hudsons,North American Harvards and 57s, Martin 167s (reconnais- sance bombers for France), Douglas reconnaissance bombers(100 DB7S for France, 50 for Canada, and 270DB-19s, essen- tially DB-7S with bigger engines, for France) and Vought-Sikorsky 156s (dive bombers for France) are thoroughly well known. Britain has just signed a contract with Douglasfor $20,000,000 (^5,000,000) of DB-igs for delivery late this year and the first half of 1941. Between 200 and 250machines of this type, powered with Wright two-row •Cyclones with a take-off rating of 1,500 h.p. are involved inthe order. Britain has also ordered fifty Consolidated 28-5S similar to the boat flown across the Atlantic and deliveredto Felixstowe last summer, and 120 Brewster fighters. Both types are almost identical with standard U.S. Navymodels, the 28-5 with the PBY-3, third of the famous BPY series of patrol bombers. The PBY is claimed to cruise at160 m.p.h. for more than 16 hours and can carry as much °i a bomb load as is necessary to deal with the occasionalsubmarine; the individual flying boat does not run across submarines very often. A contract for a further 200 28-5SJs pending. Jhere are well-founded rumours the Allies would like to°rder i, 000 (400 to France, 600 to England) Bell P-39 pur- iie i»orui American concernuse in Canada. than 1,000 h.p. probably considerably less. The Aircraft Con- cer n e d : New Designs : Expansion for Production By LEONARD ENGEL suits which, christened Aira-cobra a few weeks ago, has received enormous publicity.This is the Allison-powered machine with the engine wellback in the fuselage and the pilot's seat on the front endof the gear box. The air- screw shaft passes beneath thepilot's legs. All this is quite remarkable, if true, for amachine with not much more weighing no more than 6,5oolbs. andBut the Army's statements, from past experience, are known to be dead accurate asfar as its own aircraft are concerned. However, there is a rub to the Allies getting any of these Bell's: the AllisonEngineering Company, which went into production of its engines only last year, has had difficulties and is behindschedule on deliveries to the Army. So, unless the Merlin or some other unit can be adapted to fit or the machinealtered, it does not seem likely that the Allies will be able to obtain this type. ' T|' '* - "' Primary Trainers North American is reported also to have just signed a contract for 1,600 primary trainers of the new NA-35 type for use in Canada. At any rate, portents of the Empire air training effort are clearly visible in the United States, for the Allied missions have let it be known in roundabout ways (in order not to offend isolationist sensibilities) that qualified Americans who want jobs as instructors in Canada should come around and sign up. It is also reported reliably that the Allies are interested in an export version of the B-17 bomber produced by Boeing. A number of Americans agree that they would not be so useful against Germany as against Russia. So much for what is fact among the Allied order fictions that have been noised about. Now to consider other machines available on the American market. Flight (October 19, 1939) has already reviewed those available at the start of the war. The last six months, possibly because of the emphasis on production, have produced fewer new type3 than any similar period for several years; some, however, are extremely interesting. Consolidated's long-awaited four-motored Army bomber, in the same size class as the B-17, nas finally flown. Desig- nated the B-24 by the Army, it is one of the most un- orthodox big bombers yet seen. Its fully cantilever high wing is the Davis-Caltech type. The gross weight is just under the 20-ton limit set by the Air Corps for service bombers shortly after Gen. H. H. Arnold took over corrr- mand following the crash death of Gen. Oscar Westover. The Navy, incidentally, will shortly take delivery of six PB2Y-1 four-engined patrol-bomber flying boats. The prototype was tried out nearly two years ago. Ryan Aeronautical Corporation, which builds all-metal trainers, has a new slim observation machine with a very slim fuselage and slow-speed characteristics approaching those of the Fiesler Storch. Again, the Army Air Corps has clamped down on information on the type, but it is known that it owes its " hoverability " in part to a retract- able Fowler flap as large as the wing itself. Martin's B-26, one of the two successors to the Douglas B-18 (standard U.S. Army Air Corps heavy twin-
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