We estimated that in 1918 we would require 25,000 tons of acetone in our dope production. The British war mission in this country submitted figures showing that the war demands of the allies, together with their necessary domestic requirements, would in themselves be greater than the total world production of acetone.
There was nothing then for us to do but to increase the source of supply of these necessary acetate compounds; and this was done by encouraging, financially and otherwise, the establishment of 10 large chemical plants. These were located in as many towns and cities, as follows: Collinwood, Tenn.; Tyrone, Pa.; Mechanicsville, N. Y.; Shawinigan Falls, Canada; Kingsport, Tenn.; Lyle, Tenn.; Freemont, Mo.; Sutton, W. Va.; Shelby, Ala.; and Terre Haute, Ind.
But it was evident that before these plants could be completed the airplane builders would be needing dope; and therefore steps were taken to keep things going in all the principal countries fighting Germany until the acetate shortage could be relieved. In December, 1917, we commandeered all the existing American supply of acetate of lime, the base from which acetone and kindred products are made. Then we entered into a pool with the allied governments to ration these supplies of chemicals, pending the era of plenty. Our agency in this pool was the wood-chemical section of the War Industries Board, whereas the allies placed their demands in the hands of the British war mission. These two boards allocated the acetate chemicals among the different countries according to the urgency of their demands. Since it was evident there might be financial losses incurred as the result of the commandeering order or in the project of the new Government chemical plants, the British war mission agreed that any deficit should be shared equally by the American and British Governments. It was also agreed we should not have any advantage in prices paid for acetates of American origin. Under this arrangement we were able to produce 1,324,356 gallons of fabric dope during the period of hostilities, without upsetting any of the European war-production projects. Had the war continued, the output from the 10 chemical plants in which the Government was a partner would have cared for all American and allied requirements, allowing the production of private plants to go exclusively for the ordinary commercial purposes.
THE TRAINING PLANES.
The actual building of the airplanes gave a striking example of the value of previous experience, either direct or of a kindred nature, in the quantity production of an article. What airplanes we had built in the United States—and the number was small, being less than 800 in the 12 months prior to April, 1917—had been entirely of the training type. These had been produced principally for foreign governments. But this slight manufacture gave us a nucleus of skill and equipment that we were able to expand to meet our own training needs almost as rapidly as fields could be equipped and student aviators enlisted. The training-plane program can be called a success, as the final production figures show. Of the 11,754 airplanes actually turned out by American factories, 8,567 were training machines. This was close to the 10,000 mark set as our ambition in June, 1917.
There are two types of training planes—those used in the primary instruction of students and those in the advanced teaching, the latter approaching the service planes in type. The primary plane carries the student and the instructor. Each occupant of the fuselage has before him a full set of controls which are interconnected so that the instructor at will can do the flying himself, or correct the student's false moves, or allow the student to take complete charge of the machine. These primary planes fly at the relatively slow speed of 75 miles per hour on the average and require engines so reliable that they need little attention.
For our training planes we adopted the Curtiss JN-4, with the Curtiss OX-5 engine, and as a supplementary equipment the Standard Aero Corporation's J-1 plane, with the Hall-Scott A-7-A engine. Both of these planes and both engines had been previously manufactured here. The Curtiss equipment, which was the standard at our training camps, gave complete satisfaction. The J-1 plane was later withdrawn from use, partly because the plane itself was not liked, partly because of the vibration resulting from this Hall-Scott engine, it having only four cylinders, and partly because of the uncertainty of the engine in cold weather.
CURTISS JN4-D, USED AS A PRIMARY TRAINING MACHINE. ENGINE, CURTISS OX-5.
This machine has a dual control and is used solely for training purposes.