AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1939, Page 8

AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION

BLENHEIM BOMBER FACTORY. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, December 9. The aircraft factory recently opened to inspection by British and foreign journalists is described as “one of the best equipped and largest in the world.” What only three years ago was waste land is now the site of an immense factory, in which the famous improved Blenheim bomber is dued, and where, except for engine, instruments, and armament, all the component parts are actually manufactured.

The design of this bomber is such as to give great speed anti high performance. Although it is light, being only four and a half tons unladen, the design, by spending the stress enabled the machine to withstand severe strain. There are more than 250.000 rivets in the finished product. The course of manufacture is likened to a series of hops, as the growing aeroplane is carried forward from stage to stage of completion by an overhead railway, finally leaving the factory through huge doors which lead directly on to the testing field. The factory is a self-contained unit, having a power plant, hospital, and housing estate, and it also is building up its own supply of machine-tpol makers.

The visitors expressed themselves as deeply impressed by the organisation, which has transformed aeroplane making from a slow process into a mass-production industry now comparable with the most efficient motor-car manufacture.