Not mass production in the sense that the automobile industry understands the term, for the plane today, and probably for years to come, will still be essentially the product of manual labour rather than of the machine, A typical aeroplane factory, the Curtiss plant at Buffalo, with four new buildings completing or completed, is working up to a production rate of between one and two "planes a day; the Wright Engine Ca. at Paterson, N. J, is turning out better than 240 engines (including spare parts) a month; the Martin factory in Baltimore, with the biggest assembly bay in the country recently completed, should soon be producing two to four large bombers a week.
But the industry is turning more and more toward mass-production methods under the increasing impetus of demands—both domestic and foreign—for more and more military aircraft. Last year-the 71 producing factories, scattered from New England to the West Coast, delivered a total of 3,187 "planes valued at about $115,- 000,000 (including accessories); this year that figure, it is estimated, probably will be boosted by about 25 per or more, Considerable increases in floor space, plant equipment and numbers employed are resulting from the direct demand by all nations for bigger and better flying fleets to rain death upon the earth.
It is nevertheless true that the industry which is now expanding its $600,000,000 investment to meet the quantitative demands of military aviation gained its qualitative leadership largely because of the requirements of commercial aviation. The vast geographical extent of the country provided a natural field for overland airline operations and the great extent of the oceans which separated us from other continents was a challenge to overwater flying development.
With such an incentive—with great spaces still left to conquer—American initiative and aggressiveness plus American engineering skill and technical and design ability built up an aviation empire "which both American and many foreign authorities feel with justification is quali-natively unsurpassed, all things considered.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.