AIRCRAFT FOR THE ALLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 19, 23 January 1940, Page 8

AIRCRAFT FOR THE ALLIES

While the present position of Allied orders *for American aeroplanes remains uncertain, and big figures are mentioned; at least two new contracts are known. Last month the British Government signed a contract with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, of Burbank, California, for 200 IHudson bombers at a cost declared ;to be' "almost 20,000,000 dollars." American reports are that this" type of bomber has been used bythe Coastal Command of the R.A»F. and for leaflet raids over Germany. At the same time it was disclosed that the French Government had contracted with the Douglas Aircraft Company, of Santa Monica, California, for 270 more two-motored bombers at. an unrevealed cost The French had ordered 100 of these planes, possessing a speed described as "well in excess of 300 miles an hour" before the war begr->. ..It was also known that several other contracts for pursuit planes and training planes-were being negotiated. • • .

The Lockheed machines will be powered by two 1100 h.p. Wright Cyclone engines, supercharged ■ for operation up to about 30,000 feet. The British Government has reserved the right to install Cyclone 1200 h.p. engines in the second hundred machines, if it desires to do so. The Douglas machines, have a tricycle landing gear with a retractable nose-wheel, and are to have 900 h.p. Pratt and Whitney engines. Their ceiling, with a full load, is more than 24,000 feet.

These figures, of course, are much below the 8000 planes now being mentioned in the cablegrams, bu^ the determined way in which Britain is going about conserving dollar exchange "for aeroplane orders" shows that big