The Biggest?

Which is the biggest U.S. aircraft producer? Last week such a spate of facts, figures & claims hit newspaper headlines that even airmen were baffled.

> Tom Girdler's Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp. proudly announced that it is the "world's largest producer of airplanes." In 1943, it claimed to have delivered more planes "by weight and number" than any other company.

> Douglas Aircraft proudly announced that it had "set a new world's record" in 1943 in the delivery of combat planes. In the current year, it predicted, it will be far ahead of any other producer in "weight and numbers."

> Grumman Aircraft proudly announced that it has the "largest output in the world of combat planes" in any single plant.

On the basis of WPB figures, Consolidated was entitled to its claim. It had turned out 126,000,000 pounds of aircraft, compared to 115,000,000 for Douglas. But Douglas also had an argument. Thousands of planes produced by Consolidated were easy-to-build trainers, instead of hard-to-build combat ships. Furthermore, Consolidated had merged with Vultee and Stinson in '43, lumped all production.

WPB politely declined to be drawn into the argument. It refused to designate any company as "biggest," emphasized that comparisons, either in weight or number, are unfair. Reason: a complicated Flying Fortress is more difficult to build than a heavier transport, counts no more, numerically, than a "flying jeep." No figures could take into consideration many an other factor, such as design changes, new models, experimentation. But of one thing WPB was proudly certain: the high-geared U.S. aircraft industry will build more than 100,000 planes this year, compared to 85,946 in 1943.

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