BRITISH AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23013, 3 October 1944, Page 4

BRITISH AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY

ACHIEVEMENTS OF EIGHT YEARS

The following article has been sup-plied by the Information Department of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors.

In the days of the false peace between the wars, leaders of Great Britain’s aircraft and associated industries laid the foundations of the industrial edifice against which the Luftwaffe was ultimately to break. History will record that the mighty , engineering effort which increased structure weight of airframes produced in British factories more than 150 times between 1936 and 1944, which has multiplied the horsepower of engines manufactured no fewer than 5i times in the brief period from the first year of the war to the present day, which has raised the building of aircraft to the nation’s greatest industry, owes its main impetus to the courage and foresight of the manufacturers. They undertook great enterprises, incurred heavy risks. Aircraft designers planned their own specifications of the types of warplane which the Royal Air Force would need to meet and conquer the gathering menace in the eastern skies. Aero-engine manufacturers continued unceasing research and development, making possible the dreams of the aircraft designer, till British technical superiority received crowning recognition in the decision to build British engines in the United States—itself justly proud of its own achievements in powerplant development and production. The gun-turret was born many years before Munich, and its development pursued. Airscrew engineers tackled the intricate problems of absorbing the tremendous power developed by the new creations of the British aeroengine builder, and of transforming that power into thrust which should drive British warplanes at speeds higher than any reached before. In radio, undercarriage, light alloy and sparking plug workshops, and in factories concerned in design and production of many other of the hundreds of different categories of articles which make up the modern aeroplane, the drive for perfection went on. Combined, the result of those unwearying efforts has been victory in the Battle of Britain, victory in the Battle of Germany. Role of Manufacturers Let there be no misunderstanding of the role of the manufacturer in the attainment and retention of technical supremacy. Design of aircraft and of engines is solely the responsibility of the industry. Lord Beaverbrook, first Minister of Aircraft Production, made that point abundantly clear when, in the House of Lords on January 27, 1943, he said: “Aircraft depend for quality on the firms producing them. The design is a private venture, put forward by private enterprise, by private capital. Individual responsibility for the design of the aircraft and for development of it prevails completely. Engine design is entirely in the hands of the firm. The Ministry has no relation to engine design at all.” Audacity and perseverance in the technical field march with initiative and determination in the control and direction of the industry’s manufacturing activities. Incalculable is the national debt to that head of a great alloy company, who ordered the duplication of his vital manufacturing unit two years before the war, and equipped the new plant with giant machines, including the world’s largest drophammer —without which the British war production programme for aeroengines could not have been met during the first two years of war. And who may assess the worth of the decision to plan for immediate con-

struction of 1000 single-seat fighters, when the contract then envisaged asked for little more than 100? It was not simply a matter of multiplying first thoughts by 10. Nothing less was involved than a complete change in manufacturing methods —the application of quantity production by complex jig and tool in the place of handicraft. It meant the ordering of raw and semi-fabricated materials worth millions sterling, the creation of a vast network of sub-contractors and suppliers of essential components. These are examples of enterprise worthy to rank with the greatest achievements in the national history. They are duplicated manifold in the records of industry. Heavy Bombers British adaptability and dauntlessness in the face of the seemingly impassible were never more clearly demonstrated than in the inception and production of the modern heavy bomber. In 1936, the Air Staff adopted the theory that "bombing is a trucking problem!” They issued to the industry specifications of requirements which involved the largescale manufacture of aircraft three times heavier than the biggest bombers then in service with the Royal Air Force. The new air giants were to carry the world's largest bombs—and plenty of them. They would be vastly more economical in use of Service man-power than the smaller craft, and would eliminate congestion at the airfields because of the threefold war load which each of them could carry. Repercussions of this far-sighted decision weep immense. Castings, extrusions, stampings and forgings needed in aircraft production had to be greatly increased in size; the machinery to produce them became correspondingly more complex and larger. The aircraft designers met at every turn new problems, each needing arduous and patient study. Production engineers toiled at the new art of making air lorries in works where formerly they had built small cars! As production of the heavy bombers was getting into its stride, the night blitz hit England, but production did not falter. Factories in vulnerable areas were dispersed to scores of smaller units, while in the more remote corners of the kingdom great new assembly sheds rose in quick time. The success of the factory effort—hampered by transport difficulties, by blackout, by the German bomber—is scored deep in the face of enemy cities to-day. Great Britain is riding the crest towards victory. After five long years the men and women in the aircraft industry may justifiably look back on great past achievement ‘as a promise for a greater future. Throughout the country there is material evidence of the immense national resources for aircraft production, some part of which must be dedicated anew to the needs of peace, to the service of world air transport, to the perfection of man’s mightiest attempt to telescope time and distance. Yet the bricks and mortar. the stupendous presses and forging hammers, the costly laboratories and wind-tunnels, do not represent the abiding capital of the industry. That resides in the brains of the designers and technicians, and of the men who manage and control their efforts. Great Britain, poor in manpower compared with many other countries, has yet succeeded —thanks to the dividends paid by its capital in brain-power—in I producing the world's finest and most efficient warplanes. There is not the smallest reason to doubt her ability to achieve equivalent pre-eminence in the Air Age which will dawn when the guns stop firing.