AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1940, Page 7

AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION

DELIVERIES FROM U.S.A. [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT..] LONDON, September 22. The Ministry of Aircraft Production announced that deliveries of American aeroplanes to Britain were 500 a month. After a tour of United States aeroplane factories, Mr. H. F. James, emissary of the Minister for Aircraft Production (Lord Beaverbrook), said: “The delivery of aeroplane parts has greatly improved. American manufacturers are giving priority to British orders and are extending their plant to cope with a still greater output. The Packard company’s decision to manufacture Rolls Royce engines has considerably eased the problem of aero engine supply. The rate of delivery of complete aeroplanes will be stepped up rapidly in the very near future.” The British Purchasing Commission has spent £500,000,000 in the United States in the last 12 months, and this expenditure is expected to be equalled in the coming year. Air- ] craft contracts alone have amounted Ito £300,000,000. It is pointed out bythe mission, however, that probably not more than £125,000,000 of the first year’s contracts have so far been carried out. New factories, many of them paid for by Great Britain, have to be built before the delivery of orders can be begun. Ten new military aeroplanes a day for Britain are coming off American assembly, lines, and it is hoped that by next Summer, the figure will be increased to 70 a day. Lord Nuffield, in a message to workers, said that in spite of malevolent air raiding, the total output of wax’ materials in Britain last week reached a new high level.