BOOM IN BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 18, 20 July 1935, Page 29

BOOM IN BRITAIN

AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY

The aircraft industry is booming. It has not for some years worked to full capacity, but the new defence programme has already brought orders, principally for training machines, from the Air Ministry, writes Major C. C. Turner in the "Daily Telegraph." Further orders, making a total of some 1500 machines in this financial year, will shortly be given for fighters, general purpose aeroplanes, diving bombers, and heavy night bombers. The Ministry has no intention whatsoever of calling upon the industry to sacrifice foreign connections as a result of the decision to increase our defence force. It is realised that our hold on foreign markets must not be relaxed for a moment by failure to* guarantee deliveries on time. On its present basis the British aircraft industry can undertake a much bigger output. Measures now being taken will still further enlarge power of production. It is expected that this year's 1500 total will be considerably exceeded next year. There will, however, be no need to look for assistance from outside industries. The further orders to be given ihis year are now the subject of negotiations. Lord Weir, who is advising the Ministry, has already visited certain firms and factories to examine present and potental production capacity. The speed-up in type development decided upon is taking effect. Contracts for a new type of heavy, highperformance bombers^—one of which was ordered experimentally—are, I understand, already placed. Transport bombers and long-range bombers are also on order. To increase aero engine production it is highly probable that the method of sub-contracting will be used. This will assist in decentralising the industry—now largely concentrated at Derby, Bristol, and Coventry, which might well become vulnerable spots. More than 55,000 men have applied to the K.A.F. in response to the recent appeal for recruits. Of these, 10,000 are seeking to be pilots or airman-pilots, and 45,000 are candidates for other ranks. • ' Nearly a quarter of the application forms issued have already been returned completed. At Victory House, 1000 letters of inquiry and 200 personal applications are being received daily. Shortly the first of the new provincial recruiting depots, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Liverpool, will be opened. There is a steady, flow of applicants through the medical inspection rooms at Victory House, and some days four out of five of them have passed the tests, , «■ The Senior Medical Officer remains enthusiastic: "Two thirds of the men "who return forms are fit for the service. The main trouble is bad teeth, and for the older tradesmen we have relaxed the rule banning artificial dentures." . ■■'■■■•■■.' ■•'- i The best men are the Londoners. There are bad areas—South Wales is one—where unemployment has lowered physique, and the men\are undersized and under-nourished.