By Julian Leggett

I F SPEED and fire power are the keys to
victory in the air—and military authorities
agree that they are—the United States
is being equipped to deal with any emergency
involving the use of aircraft.
Already fighting planes for the Army
and the Navy are coming off the production
line with ratings of “more than 400
miles per hour” and aviation circles whisper
of a mystery warbird with the longdreamed-
of speed of 500 miles an hour.

Even the big bombing planes, designed primarily
for load-carrying and long-range
work, are being stepped up above 300 miles
per hour. One type, which went into production
recently, is said to be faster than
most pursuit planes being used in the
European struggle.
Lessons learned from air battles over the
war zone are being incorporated into the
American warplane, with the result that
newer types not only are fast but have
awe-inspiring firing power.
Instead of the 20-millimeter
cannon on British and German
planes, two or more of
Uncle Sam’s fighting ships
are fitted with 37-miUimeter
cannon, in addition to .50
and ,30-caliber machine
guns, giving them such
striking force that engineers
claim no plane ever built
could withstand their full
fire. And there is hushed
talk that even more powerful
weapons may be installed
in improved models of our

latest planes. Indeed, one type
now in production could be
fitted with one 37-millimeter
cannon to fire through the
propeller hub, four 20-millimeter
cannon in the wings
and two .50-caliber machine
guns atop the fuselage, just
in front of the pilot.
The 37-millimeter cannon
is the most powerful gun ever
mounted as standard equipment
in warplanes. Its big
shell, many times the size of
a .30-caliber bullet, can crash
through the thickest armor
ever employed on military
aircraft; in fact, it could knock
out most tanks in a low-altitude
strafing. With the gun
mounted in the nose, or the
hollow propeller shaft, of his
ship, the pilot aims by training
his whole plane on the
target. Firing tests have been
marked by amazing accuracy.
In the rush to develop fighting
planes for defense against
bombing planes, the striking
power of our own bombers
has not been forgotten. Improved
types of the “flying fortress” can carry several tons of bombs and have a cruising range of 3,000 to 4,000 miles. Smaller bombing planes carry 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of bombs, have a range of 1,000 miles and are armed for defense with a battery of machine guns. One type, with still less range and bomb capacity, is faster than any bomber in the air, except a few equipped with turbosuperchargers to give more speed at altitudes above the 15,000-foot level at which this ship performs best.Biggest of all the bombers is the 80-ton Douglas B-19, which has far greater range and bomb capacity than any military aircraft ever built. Its principal purpose, however, is to serve as a model for tomorrow’s bombing plane, as its speed is not considered sufficient for actual warfare. 3
In its role of “laboratory on wings” for the Army Air Forces,?
the B-19 is a mass of superlatives; for instance, it has been fittedA
recently with the largest de-icers ever built. Weighing 395 J
pounds and totaling 287 feet in length, these overshoes for pre-v
venting formation of ice contain enough rubber to provide deicing
projection for 14 pursuit planes and they have six timese
the area of those used on 21-passenger commercial transport^
planes. The de-icing system is operated automatically. Among the fastest Army and Navy fighting aircraft in u^e *
today are the Lockheed Lightning, or P-38, the Bell Airacobra, \
or P-39, the Curtiss P-40 and the Vought-Sikorsky. AH-eftrrdd^
six to seven miles a minute. The Lockheed is ‘distinguished by
twin booms which replace the customary fuselage. It is powered
by two liquid-cooled Allison engines, each of 1,150 horsepower.

booms. Cannon and machine guns are mounted in the nose of
the nacelle. Turbo-superchargers maintain constant power for
operations at 35,000 feet—nearly seven miles above the earth.
The P-38’s three-blade propellers rotate in opposite directions. Uncle Sam’s rapidly expanding
air forces are
equipped with many Curtiss
P-40 fighters and improved
models of that ship. The later
planes have more horsepower,
firepower and speed than the
P-40, which has been freedived—
falling with motor
idling—at a record rate of 661
miles per hour—a mile every
5.45 seconds. Curtiss has produced
a possible successor to
the P-40—the XP-46—which
is believed to have a top
speed of well above 400 miles
per hour.
Bell’s Airacobra literally is
a flying arsenal, boasting a
cannon and six machine guns,
all of which may be fired by
the pilot-gunner pressing a
single trigger. The gun or
guns to be fired are controlled
by electrical switches. Although
heavily armored with
steel and bulletproof glass,
the Airacobra can climb vertically
at a mile-a-minute
clip. Like the Lockheed and
the P-40 series, it is powered
by the Allison liquid-cooled
engine, which is mounted
behind the pilot and connected
to the propeller by a long
shaft. The ’Cobra has been
dived at 620 miles per hour.
Pride of the Navy is the
Vought-Sikorsky fighter,
fastest in the service. A single-
engine ship, it has a cruising
range of 1,000 miles and
can operate efficiently at
30,000 feet. Its fire power
compares favorably with that
of the Army’s fighters. Another
much-talked-about
Navy plane is the Curtiss
scout bomber SB2C-1, on
which large-scale production

planes of the same type, it is 100 miles per
hour faster, carries twice as many heavy
bombs—all transported inside the fuselage
—has 600 miles greater range, stays in the
air 4% hours longer and has twice as much
armament, giving a fire power greater than
any other single-engine naval plane. After
the Navy’s airmen saw this dive bomber
go through its paces, they signed on the
dotted line for an initial order totaling
$50,000,000.
Latest of ^peing^s “flying fortress”
bombing planes is the B-17E, powered by
four mighty engines that give it a range of
more than 3,500 miles and a ceiling of about
36,000 feet. Capable of lifting several tons
of bombs across the American continent
and halfway back, it is manned by seven to
nine men. Boeing, Douglas Aircraft Corporation
and Vega Airplane Company have
pooled production facilities to turn out flying
fortresses in large numbers. The bombing
planes will be identical, even to the
point of interchangeability of parts. Several
other manufacturers are contributing Consolidated^. teavy
bomberis a four-engine warplane with a
3,000-mile range and a bomb capacity of
8,000 pounds. Its top speed is above 300
miles per hour. Better known is the Consolidated
patrol bomber, due to a ship of
this type having played a leading role in
the successful hunt for and subsequent
destruction of the German battleship Bismarck.
In British sea patrol work, this ship
has a crew of ten men—three pilots, an
observer, radio operator, radio mechanic,
flight engineer, flight mechanic, gunner
and flight rigger. The pilots share the responsibilities
of navigation with the observer.
There is accommodation for four
men on canvas bunks in the cabin and
during an around-the-clock patrol, hot
meals may be prepared on a small stove.
Always the men on duty in the pilot’s
cockpit or in the transparent “blister”
amidships scan the seas for enemy submarines.
At the first sign of a telltale plume
of water from a periscope, the pilot dives
and releases powerful depth bombs, while
the radio flashes the submarine’s location
to warships and merchant ships.