AIR FLEETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1939, Page 12

AIR FLEETS

GERMANY IN THE LEAD. There can be little doubt that Germany to-day holds the balance of air power in Europe. Germany (writes Group-captain L. S. G. Payne in the Daily Telegraph) now has a group of the largest and best -equipped manufacturing plants in the world. It seems probable at present that Germany and Italy together might out-] weigh by a substantial margin the combined air power of Britain J France and Russia. I These are some of the conclusions' reached by Mr. S. Paul Johnston, eda-l tor of the authoritative American' journal ‘'Aviation.” in an article en- 1 titled "An Appraisal of European Air I l ower," which appears in the January number of his paper. Mr. John-] ston’s deductions are particularly in-j teresting because, in the first place, he has marshalled a large number of facts and figures and. secondly, he made an extensive survey of Eure-1 pean aviation in 1936. He has com ! pared what he saw then with what he unearthed in the tour from which he' has just returned. | Aircraft, production in Britain, ac- i

cording to Mr. Johnston, is only now beginning to reach the level that lie had thought possible, by the end ot 1937. The position in France has become worse during the period of nationalisation of her aircraft industry.

Germany, on the other hand, has fulfilled the anticipated rate, of expansion in 1937 and 1938. By keeping well posted on events in Britain, France and Russia, she has maintained a comfortable lead without plunging into an unrestricted building programme.

The productive capacity of the principal European air Bowers per month at tho end of 1938. is assessed by Mr. Johnston as:—Germany, 400-500: Italy, about 200: Britain, close to 200; France, about 75. This lie considers a conservative estimate. No figures for Russia are given, but Mr. Johnston adds. "Two years ago I estimated that 1

I the ILS.S.R. was the No. 1 air power in the world, but it now seems very likely that it has been considerably overrated in effectiveness, if not in numbers." Mr. Johnston estimates that Germany turned out 4000 to 5000 aircraft in 1937, close to 6000 in 1938. and, by the beginning of 1940 should be pro-, ducing at an annual rate of 8000. ] Britain, he thinks, produced 1800 machines in 1938. although towards the latter part, of that year the output was approaching 60 or 70 a week,] or a rate of between 3000 and 3500 a year.

] He considers that the situation in (Britain is changing rapidly for the better, as the big “shadow” factories are on the verge of going into real 'production. | “It is reasonable to expect,” he adds, “that the rate of production in] [England will continue to increase' from the estimated rate of 3500 planes per year, as at the beginning: of 1939.

a rate approaching 5000 planes per year by January 1, 1940.” It. should be noted that, according to Mr. Johnston’s calculatons, Germany will then be turning out annually 3900 more machines than Britain. I ’Die Hcinkel plant at Oranienburg ‘ is one of the largest and finest fac-l

juries in Germany, although it is only one of a group of .large producing plants, including Messerschmitt, Dornier. Focke-Wulf, Junkers, Henschel. and Arado. ! When Mr. Johnston visited it late

in November, it was turning out nothing but Heinkel 111 bombers powered with two Junkers Juno engines. He estimated that, working without pressure on one eight-hour shift per day, it would produce 10 or 12 of these machines per week. But. Mr. Johnston c-stmiates that, “by turning on the

- heat’ ’it might be able to produce 160 i machines per month. The production picture in Italy is more satisfactory than in Britain and France, according to Mr. Johnston, alithough not on such a grand scale as • that; of Germany.. I i Comparing French and British proeduction, he points out that from 1934

- \d 1938 the French Air Ministry bud|get has been raised from about two I billion francs to slightly over eight billion. The purchasing price of the I franc, over the same period, has been [practically halved. Thus, instead of the appropriations being quadrupled . they have been little more than doublied. I At the same time, the British Air Ministry’s appropriations have risen from £20,000,000 to £120,000,000 in terms of actual purchasing power. I Mr. Johnston declares: “There is a form of wishful thinking commonly current that will admit that Germany

and Italy have done great things in the production of material, but have fallen down badly on the training of personnel to fly and to service the machines that they produce. Even if 1 had not seen something of the great training and apprentice programmes in Germany and Italy, I would still be inclined to question that view. It simply does not make

I sense to assume that Germany, for ] example, with her inherent capacity . for detailed planning, would overlook I such an important element in her air i strength.” I 1 believe that the rate of aircraft [production in this country, though i not yet approaching that of Germany, is nevertheless higher than Mr. JohnIston supposes. But if only half of I what ho claims is true the position is serious enough.