AIRCRAFT : QUALITY OR QUANTITY
SIR,—In the article by Mr. J. M. Spaight in your last issue the ques- tions of quantity and quality of aircraft are raised in connexion with the possibility of mass-production. Mr. Spaight quotes Lord Trenchard in calling "the figures 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000 aircraft fantastic." Surely today the numerical superiority whicn we require in air- craft for the defence of the British Empire might have to reach a total of too,000 or 200,000 machines. In fact, one can safely say that the sky is the limit. For Mr. Spaight to state that there cannot be " constant improvement " under a system of mass-production is surely entirely false, for a review of the improvements incorporated annually by motor-car manufacturers is entirely contradictory to Mr. Spaight's remark.
Motor-car manufacturers ct rtainly have the benefit of a sound knowledge of mass-production, and there appears to be no other possible way of achieving the phenomenal figures which we require to bring our enemies to reason. Six thousand a day is the stated production figure for General Motors, and there seems to be no reason why aircraft should not approach the same figure. A certain amount of standardisation is already taking place in aircraft construc- tion, as can be seen by the similarity in design between the leading manufacturers in the various modern factories. Whether it would be in our interests to establish large-scale mass-production in this country is quite a different matter, but there seems to be no doubt that the ultimate aim should and must be for the mass-production of machines in one of more of our Dominions away from the centre of present events.—Yours sincerely, V. WISEMAN. Broom Cottage, Marchmont Road, Richmond.
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