NEW SECRET PLANES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20958, 4 December 1942, Page 3

NEW SECRET PLANES

U.S. SURPRISES PROMISED 1 FLEXIBILITY OF PLANTS (10.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 3. The United States has secret new planes that are “enough to make the angels gasp.” Major Nathaniel Silsbee,: of the United States Army Air Force told the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ’ i Major Silsbee added that a score of : new fighters, bombers and transports are under test. Many of them have already been flown. The planes are still on the secret list. In addition to new designs, the air force had developed a method of making wholesale alterations in planes after (heir manufacture. This is done in “modification centres” of which there are dozens, not all of which are at aircraft factories. These centres make quick alterations demanded by battle conditions, such as installing different types of guns and refitting landinggear that will not crack up in desert fighting. Such centres altered MajorGeneral Doolittle’s planes for the bombing of Japan. They paint the planes a dusty pink for the Egyptian desert and fit others for the Arctic regions. America is not building planes on a strictly mass production basis but is keeping production fluid. Nevertheless there are large-scale orders in 1000 and even 5000 lots. Major Silsbee said that the tail gun which had been added to Flying Fortresses at the modification centre had completely surprised the Japanese. Nearly 100 Japanese planes were shot down before a single one was able to get back to tell the others what was happening.