Monday, Jun. 20, 1938
U. S. Aid
As its first move to overcome lagging domestic production and zoom the Royal Air Force up to par with Germany's air fighting strength, Britain's Air Ministry last week ordered from two U. S. concerns 400 planes, valued at $25,000,000. One was the largest foreign aircraft order ever placed with a U. S. firm.
The Lockheed Aircraft Corp. plant at Burbank, Calif., will ship to England, possibly within a year, the first of 200 eleven-passenger airliners, valued at some $18,000,000, which will be converted into reconnaissance machines. Fitted with two 800-horsepower motors, capable of a top speed of 250 miles an hour, these Lockheeds will be far superior to the present Royal Air Force reconnaissance ships, the Avro Anson, with a maximum speed of 188, and the Blackburn Shark, with a maximum of 152. Two hundred North American BT-9B type, low-winged, single-motored monoplanes with a top speed of 171 miles an hour, were ordered from the North American Aviation plant at Inglewood, Calif., for use as advanced training ships.
With the U. S. supplying these much-needed reconnaissance and training ships, new Secretary of State for Air Sir Kingsley Wood intends to keep Britain's factories rolling out bombers and fighting planes. Both U. S. contracts are a result of investigations by Britain's air mission, which returned to England fortnight ago after scouting production facilities of U. S. and Canadian concerns. No Canadian contracts were let last week but the Ministry admitted that a move to aid Canadian aircraft production, in line with the mother country's longview program to make the Dominions self-sufficient in their rearmament, would soon be under way.
Plenty of howling against purchases abroad is expected from both British labor and aircraft manufacturers, and only the fact that Parliament was not in session last week saved the Air Secretary from cries of ''Buy British" from the Opposition. Anti-Chamberlain Conservative M. P.s are expected to add their complaints that foreign purchases indicate the continued failure of the Air Ministry to solve the problem by home production, as they believe possible.
As a soothing syrup to spoon out to the Government's air rearmament critics this week, the Air Secretary received assurance last week from Motor Magnate Lord Nuffield--who ended his two-year nonparticipation in air rearmament when Lord Swinton was dropped as Air Secretary month ago--that he will erect a huge airframe plant on the outskirts of Birmingham, designed for mass production of 5,000 planes a year. The factory, expected to be in operation in six months, will turn out Britain's newly developed "interceptor fighters," which will be fitted with Rolls-Royce motors. Running at its capacity of 100 machines a week, this plant alone should equal Germany's estimated yearly output of 5,000 first-line fighting planes.
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