The Eagle Spreads His Wings 



By Waldemar Kaempffert 



How 23,625 Ameri- 

 can airplanes will 

 be built at the rate 

 of 3,500 a month to 

 crowd the Germans 

 out of the air 



The Liberty motor, 

 which will solve 

 the engine prob- 

 lems of the air- 

 plane, and how 

 it will be built 



BETWEEN 1908 and 191 6 our army 

 ordered fifty-nine airplanes and re- 

 ceived fifty-four. In 191 6, with the 

 possibility of being plunged into the war 

 ever present, orders for 366 machines were 

 placed, but only sixty-four were delivered. 

 Even little Bulgaria in time of peace had 

 almost three times the number of airplanes 

 that we owned when we declared war. 



And now we are planning to build 23,625 

 airplanes at the rate of 3,500 a month. 

 From less than a hundred a year to over 

 thirty times that number in a month! 



Airplane building is essentially a military 

 industry. The great French and German 

 builders of flying machines would have 

 starved to death had they been dependent 

 on the general public, and this despite the 

 rich prizes that were offered by sportsmen 

 and despite all the interest whipped up in 

 flying contests by the 

 daily press. Because 

 the airplane builder 

 never received ade- 

 quate support from 

 the Government we 

 have to create a real 

 industry. In 1916 

 the American air- 

 plane industry, such 

 as it was, had a 

 capitalization of only 

 $50,000,000 and gave 

 employment to about 

 14,000 men. The 

 money invested in 

 the airplane industry 

 of England now 

 amounts to $375,- 

 000,000; the number 

 of employees is 66,- 

 000; the capacity of 

 the plants is 41,000 

 machines a year. Compare these American 

 and English statistics and it will at once 

 appear how much ground we have to cover. 



Stitching the fabric of a stabilizing surface. 

 Linen, for which we depend on Ireland, is used 



Unfortunately the airplane is not like the 

 automobile. It can hardly be compared, 

 from a manufacturing point of view, with 

 anything in the world. 



The Automobile and Airplane Compared 



It does not matter very much whether an 

 automobile engine weighs thirteen, four- 

 teen, or fifteen . pounds to the horsepower. 

 An automobile-engine maker can think and 

 work in pounds; but the airplane maker 

 must consider ounces. The airplane itself 

 is essentially a lifting device. It must 

 elevate and transport not only itself but a 

 useful load. The less of itself that it has 

 to lift the greater the load that it can carry. 

 Sometimes it must be fast — faster than any 

 artificial thing except a bullet. Great speed 

 can be attained only with 

 a bigger engine, and that 

 means more weight. 



How An Airplane Engine 

 Is Built 



To make an automo- 

 bile engine, molten 

 metal is poured like 

 so much water into a 

 mold of sand; when 

 the metal cools the 

 crude form of an en- 

 gine congeals. The 

 Liberty motor is not 

 so easily produced; 

 it is machined out of 

 a solid block of steel 

 — the very best steel 

 that the most know- 

 ing metallurgists can 

 produce. The cast- 

 ing of an automobile 

 engine is a matter of 

 minutes; the ma- 

 chining of a Liberty engine is a matter of 

 hours, even days. Automobile engines are 

 produced by the hundred in the working day 



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