CANADA'S PART

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23818, 20 November 1940, Page 6

CANADA'S PART

AID FOE BRITAIN NEW AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY SWIFT EXPANSION MADE The magnitude of Canada's youthful aircraft industry, and the major contribution it is already making toward the achievement of British supremacy in the air, are reviewed in a special issue of the Financial Post, Toronto, published late in September. Already 11 types of aeroplane, ranging from small trainers to long-range bombers and Hurricane fighters, are being made or produced in Canada, and machines on order run into thousands. "Swiftly from coast to coast a great Canadian aircraft industry is developing,'* states the Financial Post. "The industry has been rapidly mobilised to serve the needs of the vast Commonwealth air training plan, as well as to assist in providing Britain with frontrank fighting craft. The Hon. C. D. Howe recently told the House of Commons: 'Early in 1941 wo expect to have a production of 360 aeroplanes a month, or about 12 aeroplanes a day.' Canada will shortly be making her own propellers and instruments —perhaps her own aeroplane engines if present plans materialise." Employment in Canadian aircraft factories has risen from 1600 men at the beginning of the war to 11,000 to-day, the article says. Another 11,000 workers are estimated to be engaged in industry serving aircraft producers. By noxt spring another 10,000 highly-skilled mechanics will be busy with aircraft overhaul, keeping machines in safe, efficient operation. There are 25 of these overhaul plants operated entirely by private enterprise. Among the machines now being built in Canada are some of the types that have already been highly successful in action. against the Luftwaffe. The largest machine being made in Canada is the Handley-Page Hampden, a longdistance bomber, with a speed reported to exceed 300 miles an hour. "Canada's aircraft industry is on the threshold of tremendous expansion," says an article in the paper. "Situated close to Great Britain, but far beyond the range of present bombing, this Dominion is to become the senior partner to Great Britain in Empire aeroplane manufacture."