, Global Transportation 85 



pressure cabin and knock out the crew. Work is being rushed 

 to make pressure cabins bullet-sealing like the fuel tanks of 

 combat planes. 



During the Battle of Britain the late Sir Frederick Banting, 

 codiscoverer of insulin, said, "Whichever power gets up to 

 40,000 feet first and can stay there longest with the heaviest 

 guns will win the war." Early in 1943 there were indications 

 that the Germans were ready to make a desperate bid for 

 aerial supremacy with fighter planes equipped with pressurized 

 cabins. In November, 1942, the British reported that a Ger- 

 man reconnaissance plane was shot down by a Spitfire at fifty 

 thousand feet. The installation of heavy pressurized cabins 

 on light fighter planes is considered an outstanding achieve- 

 ment. Experts, however, believe that these cabins will be 

 used more extensively on huge new bombers. There have 

 been frequent reports that the Army is preparing to bring 

 out a giant bomber that will be able to carry destruction to 

 the enemy at altitudes far beyond the reach of antiaircraft 

 defenses and fighter planes. In hinting of the new bomber 

 General H. H. Arnold, Air Forces Commander, remarked 

 that the 6-24 Liberators and the B-iy Flying Fortresses were 

 the "last of the small bombers"! 1 



Air Cargo 



Public confidence in the safety and efficiency of air trans- 

 port will bring a vast expansion of air-cargo business in post- 

 war years. All forms of transportation have found that while 



1 The New York Times reported from Washington on November 4, 

 1943, that the "final test" of the Army's new superbomber, the 6-29, "is not 

 now far distant," according to General H. H. Arnold. The 6-29 was devel- 

 oped by Boeing, the originator of the B-iy Flying Fortress. General Arnold 

 said the 6-29 "will have a range substantially greater than the maximum 

 effective range of today's longest-range heavy bombers." 



