SCRAPHEAP THEIR FATE

Evening Star, Issue 25619, 20 October 1945, Page 12

SCRAPHEAP THEIR FATE

HIGH-POWERED AERO ENGINES MAGNIFICENT ENGINEERING MASTERPIECES The war brought about a gigantic increase in the number of planes and nero engines built, and its termination is going to throw into discard ;a huge number ctf magnificent engineering masterpieces constructed for war but practically useless and uneconomic for-com-mercial application. It is going to be a colossal \vastage._ High-powered superefficient aero . engines that cost thousands olf pounds each to constructs—invaluable for military; purposes, but of little or no further use' because they are not suitable for commercial services—will shortly be little better than scrap metal and of no value to anyone. What is to become of them? An idea of what is involved in this query, says the ' Dunlop Bulletin,' may be gathered from the fact that in the United States alone 97,694 planes were built last year, bringing the total construction of aircraft in that country since 1941 to 250,803 unite. In addiI tion, hundreds of thousands off _ high- ! powered aero engines were built as spares —one corporation alone made 180.000. In 1943, America's output of aero engines reached 235,300. In the war years, Great Britain constructed 125.000 complete aircraft, besides a large output of aero engines; Canada and Australia also contributed to the huge total qf military aircraft, for much of which the world will soon-have little use. These wonderful machines helped win the.war. Now a dismal fate —the scrap heap—faces most of these engineering, masterpieces. However, they will leave a wonderful legacy, for their evolution, designing, and building has provided much data which doubtless will prove invaluable to peace-time civil aviation, for which'so much is predicted.