GOOD AS THE BEST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20190, 7 March 1940, Page 4

GOOD AS THE BEST

BRITISH WAR PLANES PRODUCTION STANDARDS QUANTITY AND PRECISION P.B. MAN’S EXPERIENCE ■ “Official statements concerning the speed and general capacity of Britain’s fighting planes can be regarded as thoroughly conservative, if not as outright understatements. The Air Ministry has never made a practice of offering full information to the potential enemies of Britain. They will learn just what the British aircraft industry has accomplished, in design and lighting-power, when—and if —-they open up a campaign of unrestricted aerial warfare,” to-day stated a Gisborne resident who until a few months ago was an inspection officer in one of Britain’s aircraft “shadow” factories The speaker was Mr. D. O. Crawford, a Taranaki-born man, who spent some years in Britain, secured a wellpaid post in one of the Austin factories at Birmingham as an inspecting officer employed under the shadowfactory scheme for producing aircraft, and finally left Britain to bring his wife and infant to the comparative safety of his homeland. At the time of their return to New Zealand, war was not an immediate prospect, but the crisis of September, 1938, had opened people’s eyes to the possibilities of a war in which civilian noncombatants would receive little consideration. In his Birmingham post Mr. Crawford, who is now district manager at Gisborne for the Mutual Lfe and Citizens’ Assurance Company, was responsible for testing a part of the factory's output of Fairey battle bombers, machines with plenty of speed, a substantial effective range, and adequate defensive armament. Surprises for Blitzkreigcrs The battle bomber is not equipped to fight except to ward off interceptors and pursuit planes. A beautifully streamlined “ship” which from the front presents not a single flat face or sharp edge, it is one of the recent developments of the Air Ministry designers, and is likely to piav a substantial part in counter-measures by Britain, should the Nazis launch their boasted blitzkreig. Quantity production of aircraft and other war material has not reduced the standards of workmanship m the British factories, Mr. Crawford said, in reply to a pressman's questions. Precision engineering is as exacting in its requirements as ever, and inspecting officers are under the obligation of maintaining the highest possible standard.

In every operation in the production of the Fairey battle bomber, for instance, the allowable degree of variation from absolute accuracy is one four-thousandth of an inch; any fraction more formidable than this is a full warrant of rejection. The division of work into {innumerable individual tasks alone makes it possible to keep to this standard. Each worker does a small operation, and from habit and pride in his work, he does it almost to perfection. Responsibilities of Inspectors Any letting-down of the stand trd is the responsibility of the firm’s inspection officers. They must prove themselves in the first place to the firm, and in the second place to the Air .Ministry. Once recognised as sound, they receive stamps from the Ministry as individual and personal guarantees of workmanship. They are naturally jealous of their standing, and this helps to keep lip the inspection standard. Moreover, they know that if they fail in their work, and their failures are detected, the Ministry will reject a whole job for some minor defect, and the firm’s inspector responsible for passing it will lose standing. Three such failures would mean the loss of the Air Ministry stamps, and the confidence of the inspector’s employer at the same time. Under these exacting conditions, British aircraft factories are producing, at an increasing rate, machines that for engineering perfection alone make the German machines look extremely rough and ready. The command of unlimited sources of supply for metals and other - materials puts Britain in a commanding position in the production of planes, so far as the belligerent powers are concerned, and design is keeping pace with construction. British Machines and Pilots The Hawker Hurricanes and Spitfires, and the Boulton and Defiance machines, of which Mr. Crawford saw a good deal in Britain, are capable of speeds far in excess of the official rating, and their manoeuvrability is a byword in aviation. For every purpose to which planes can be put, Britain is producing patterns which are as good as the best foreign planes, if not greatly superior. Details of construction and speed, of course, will be kept secret until after the war, but the Nazis will not be denied demonstrations from which they may draw their own conclusions. “There is no doubt that Germany already knows enough to treat British fighters and bombers with, respect,” said Mr. Crawford. "Nor is there any doubt about what will happen if the Nazis send their machines over Britain in large numbers, as they have threatened. The British planes and the British pilots will stop them, and beat them!”