When Roscoe Turner, the "elder statesman" of American air racing, won the big-mone; Thompson trophy event at Clev/land in 1958 by running his 1,200 horse power engine wide open for a solid hour, he helped peg American aircraft power plants as the world's best, s the "Christian Science Monitor." Flushed and more than $20,000 richer for his hour's toil, big Roscoe taxied his silver monoplane to the line and cut the switches. "Wide open, all the way," he announced, amazed. Forthwith mechanics tore down the engine to see what had happened to it. Aeroplane engines wer not meant to take that punishment. Its in terior looked almost as good as the day it came off the factory production line.
Criticism of American warplanes, in comparison with those of Germany and England, cannot be made on the counts of speed or engine dependability. Criticism can be more justly levelled at the United States' engine production. That is both America's strength and weakness in the race for air rearmament, We have the world's best radial, air-cooled plane engines, but our current production will equip only 600 to 700 combat planes a month.
The engine "bottleneck" will be relieved appreciable. by late spring or early summer.
But what that will mean in terms of greater American air power remains for determination. Much of our production is destined for England. President Roosevelt's "rule-of-thumb" division of our warplane output equally between our armed forces and England has been revised. The greater part of the output of some warplane factories, and all of. that of some factories, is going to England as fast as it comes off the assembly line, That is i keeping with the policy of all aid short war,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.