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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0485.PDF
anJ AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY : 8-10. CORPORATION ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2 : GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST. Telegroms: Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Coventry 52 10. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 1333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, DEANSGATE. 26B, RENPIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Te/ephone : Blackfriars 4412. Telephone : Central 4857. No. 1783. Vol. XLIII. c Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. February 25th, 1943. IFe Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling, Trouble at Willow RunT HAT all is not well with the much-publicised Ford aircraft factory at Willow Run might have been inferred from an article which we published recently. The article described a new gigantic trailer used for transporting partly assembled Liberators from the Willow Run factory to assembly plants in the south- west of America, a distance of 2,000 miles. Our con- tributor pointed out that the assembly shop at Willow Run was inadequate to deal with the production of parts, and that the American Government decided to use two large plants already in existence in the south-west rather than build new ones in Michigan. The U.S. War Investigating Committee has now • ordered a full enquiry into the production at the Ford' factory, and the chairman of the Committee, Senator Truman, has been reported as alleging that there has been so little production as to amount virtually to none. Which part of production he did not mention. Until the investigations have been completed and the report published, one can but speculate on the real cause, but on the face of it "one bomber per hour" sounds a little ambitious. It would not be surprising if the Com- mittee found that assembly was the bottleneck. It is always so very much easier to manufacture the small "bits and pieces" in huge quantities than it is to assemble them into complete aircraft. Probably Henry Ford has found, as did many of our firms, that there is a vast difference between assembling motor cars and aircraft. The very fact that the American Government should, as recorded in our article, have taken the some- what drastic course of sending part-finished Liberators to assembly plants 2,000 miles away appears to indicate Pretty clearly where the hold-up is likely to have occurred. Torpedo Aircraft IN our issue of February 4th last we made some com-ments on Lord Trenchard's statement in the Houseof Lords that the Admiralty '' scoffed at torpedo machines," but that the Royal Air Force realised the value of them and kept them going. We pointed out that in January, 1937, the Fleet Air Arm had only 13 squadrons, of which three were torpedo-bombers, and that that was a fairly high percentage of the total. Our attention has since been drawn to a Navy List of October, 1937, in which it is shown that the Fleet Air Arm included no fewer than ten torpedo-spotter- reconnaissance squadrons. Of these, six had previously been designated fleet spotter-reconnaissance squadrons, which had been converted into T.S.R. squadrons as Swordfish aircraft became available, while one, No. 813, had been raised in the interval. That disproves very effectually the charge that the Admiralty had scoffed at torpedo aircraft. As for Lord Trenchard's other assertion that the R.A.F. had realised the value of such aircraft, the facts are that the so-called Metropolitan Air Force (i.e., the squadrons based in the British Isles) at the same date included only one torpedo-bomber squadron, No. 22, though there were two others, Nos. 36 and 100, at Singa- pore. Another squadron of that class, No. 42, was raised in Great Britain shortly after, so that when war was declared the Metropolitan Air Force actually had two squadrons capable of launching torpedoes from the air. As they were in 1939 equipped with Vildebeests, they had not the range to do much damage to the enemy. Of course, things were quickly changed when the Beau- fort was produced in numbers, and that machine has done sterling work for Coastal Command. From these'figures one must conclude that through
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