FIFTY PLANES A DAY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 22, 19 March 1918, Page 5

FIFTY PLANES A DAY.

AMERICA’S HUGE OUTPUT. A MONSTER FACTORY. * The United States Government has asked for a vote of £55,400,000 for bombs for aeroplanes. Some time ago it appropriated £128,000,000 for aeroplanes, and for months has been busy spending that money. Factories have been built or made over for the purpose, and the work is proceeding at a pace which augurs the early output of an enormous air fleet. The first fruits of this movement, according to the Scientific American, are seen in the completion of an aeroplane factory, the largest of its kind in the world, which has been built in a little over three months’ time and is already actively engaged in turning out planes for the United States Government. The enormous size, of this factory and the short space of time in which it was built, render this one of the most conspicuous examples of what can be done by a combination of brains, energy, and capital meeting quickly the imperative demands of the war into which we have entered. It reaches 900 feet in one direction, and 1300 feet, or, say, a quarter of a mile, in the other direction, and the whole of this area is covered by a single roof, and constitutes, except for a fire partition wall, a single shop. For structural purposes the shop is divided into nine bays, each bay being 100 feet wile and 1300 feet in length. Through each bay runs a gallery. Upon the floor is done the work of construction of the parts, and upon the galleries, each of which runs the full 1300 feet of length of the building, is carried the work of assembling. The layout of the plant upon this vast floor space has been so arranged that the raw material, in the shape of sawn spruce, brought here mainly from the forests of Oregon, enter the building at one end, and the finished ’planes leave it at the other end —the material moving from stage to stage and from machine to machine as the work proceeds. Near the incoming end of the building have been constructed some enormous dry kilns which have a capacity of 1,000,000 feet B.M. In the drying-out process the lumber, rough sawn to suitable sizes for the struts, frames, etc., is loaded on to trucks and run into the kilns, where it is subjected to steam heat for a period of time which is determined by the condition of the lumber.

In the succeeding bays of the building the wood is planed, milled, and worked down to the finished size in thousands of wood-working machines of the very latest type. Next to the wood-working machines one comes to a vast space whore a largo force of cabinetmakers, skilled l in exact and carefully-finished work, are engaged in building up the skeleton of the wings and the fuselages. The next process is the covering of the wings and bodies with linen —a work which in itself calls for a large section of the floor space. The covered wings and bodies are next passed on to the varnishing department, where the “dope,” which is almost pure rubber, is applied in several coats. The last touch is to paint the machines the appropriate characteristic colour and put upon them the insignia of the United States Service.

The machinery requires 40,000 horsepower to drive it, and 15,000 operatives are employed. With everything in going order, aeroplanes will be turned out at the rate of 50 per day. If the supply of motors keeps pace with the output of 'planes, when the factory is being run to its full capacity, this will mean that a completed aeroplane could be wheeled out of the factory and take flight in the air every 9i minutes of an eight-hour day. And this is only ono of many great plants which are engaged in the work of getting ready to “put out the eyes” of the German Army on the Western front, when the United States forces join in the great Allied drive next spring.