AIR-WAR IN MASS: U.S. SUPPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1940, Page 6

AIR-WAR IN MASS: U.S. SUPPLIES

While the world is ringing with the exploits of a Wellington "ace," aged twenty-one, who holds top score in that kind of air-fighting in which individual proAvess is often decisive, the foundries of the United States are ringing with preparations for air-war in mass. Operations by formations of limited size, in which aeroplane meets aeroplane in duels or in clashes of threes or, fours or fives, are an actuality; but massed air-war is an untried experiment. What are being faced at present are problems of mass-production in the foundries, including the United States problem of how to regulate production and selling of aeroplanes, so that the American'nation shall have the advantage of possessing industries with large output (which presupposes heavy selling to the Allies) and at the same time the advantage of being able at any given moment to command for American use a sufficiency of American-made planes. Sufficiency, used in this sense, does not mean merely numbers; it implies quality, speed, and hitting power;

and as the hitting power of aeroI planes seems to be continually changing in an ascending scale, American interests would not be served (but would, in fact, be disserved) if the' United States Government were to suspend oversea supply contracts until an. American air-fleet of existing models is com- ! pletely built up. In the present I stage of aeroplane development, the supply of the Allies, and the supply of the American home demand, are not competitive operations. They are I co-operative, if co-ordinated. That, at any rate, is the trend of Ameri- j can expert advice as cabled. American defence needs and Allied war needs j can* walk hand in hand. !