SHIPS AND PLANES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 101, 1 May 1941, Page 10

SHIPS AND PLANES

AMERICAN PROVISION

BEATING AXIS FACTORIES

(GIANT ARMY BOMBERS

fßec. 2 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Ap. 30,

Colonel Knox, Secretary of the 'Navy, stated that the navy expected to build a substantial numjber of high-speed "mosquito" boats for Britain, but stressed that larger warships were not available for transfer.

Admiral Land, chairman of the Maritime Commission, disclosed that President Roosevelt is planning to create a vast pool of American merchant .vessels and of requisitioned foreign ships,' to be used anywhere at any *$ime in connection with defence.

■ A spokesman for the American aircraft industry has reported to the United States Chamber of Commerce that, according to the best obtainable estimates, half the United States aeroplane production, plus Britain's output, now exceeds the total aircraft production of the Axis Powers. The total production of the United. States this year will be 18,000 aircraft, #and next year it will be 30,000.

The War Department has awarded a contract for 43,000,000 dollars for planes and parts to the Douglas Aircraft Company. This is believed to

presage the development of a fleet of

70-ton "aerial dreadnoughts/ approxi- -: mately twice the size of the army's present biggest bombers.—U.P.A.