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WtiJni(S7. Beeertibe 8, 1131
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ight Years Required To
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Needless Time Lost
By Acts of Pentagon,
Kdilor'f not- ThT iff the wrcontf of
Aci f sf artirles dot trmentinj; a
fcffiw llfuation in military aircrall
production which imperil;, our na-
t tonal security.
J j. y HOBEHT S. BIRD
; 3 a"nd TOM LAMBERT
' JC;.'G?ew York Herald Tribuna
' Q Newt Service ;
Washington A new airplane
begins as art idea. The design
cjfnes later. In the beginning
, pltoe exists as a rattier
shapejess" concept pegged on the
demands for speed,' altitude and
i'if e foe prsjected possible mis-
'delay's B52, a 200-ton, swept
i f. wing eight-jet monster that
weis aleng 10 miles above
ccnenl" and E6ceans at 658
miles an hour, began in such a
a? back irP194S. e
By January, 1948, this shad
owy concept had crystallized in
l,Hj military minds, and a month
later tri (then) Army Air Force
authorize several airplane man
ufacturer to suWnit proposals
for such an intercontinental
bomberCiapable of carrying the
-new atomic bomb 6,0) milts or
Oso to an enemy target. At that
date, the airplane was not'
planned as jet-powered.
Bui)Eight Years Later '
On March 18, 1954 " eight
i-ears and three months, or 12,-
(fifiO.OOO engineering ma'n-houii
J.-tr the first production model
of the Straio-Fortre.is.. now a jet
.aircraft, was rolled out of the
Boeing Airplane Co. plant in
Seattle, Wash. '- '
Jn. Nathan F. Twining, Air
FcMfce chief of staif, was the
ifSnn speaker' at the gala roll-out
ceremor.s at the big Boeing fac-
"To say that this. is the great
est bomber in the 'world today
djgHting it ery,every mildly,",
he saidifoudly. "And the prog
ress that thit airplane has made
since the prototype was put on
Othe line is somefklng that has
never been equalled." ,
PeiSaps. - '"'
But 44 days alter on May
u l,a954 fj,he U.S.S.R. delivered
Q painful blow to American mili
tary pride and cg'oplacency. At
the aShual air, show in Moscow
' on tHflt day; Soviet officials stood
by, faces dead-panned, as their
. .own c intercontinental bomber,
the Bison, ilew overhead.
"Two years ahead of our esti
mate of their schedule!" Penta
gon officials exclaimed. Some
tried to justify this grave mis
calculation by calling tfce lone
Bison "a prototype an experi
mental model."" , . c d -
Perhaps. 3
Actiilly, our" Air Force is not
certain aeven now if that Bison
was a prototype or a production
model.
Capatle of Carrying Bombs ,
oThe fact is othe Soviets had
'turned out anh intercontinental
jet boSiber capable of carrying
the nuclear bombs to our target
cities,- a- had done it two
years ahead of the date we had
anticipated. o
It is 9iow believed thet the
TJ.SS.R. designed, developed and
flew their strategic bomber
within a five-year lead time
period, as conjpared tr our lead
time of eight years fr the first
production model of the B52.
q T2jiSs long led time for the
B52, future backbone of the
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Strategic Air Command, imperils
the now questionable-air superi- !
ority of the United States, as
military leaders have -admitted..
i-ven now, according to some
estimates, the Soviets have more
iutercontinental j e.t bombers
than, this country. The exact
number of B52e is secret, but
some sources put the total at'
110. The Soviets are estimated
to have possibly 200 Bisons.
How much unnecessary lead
time could have been .saved on
the B52?
Boeing officials would not'
estimate specifically how many
months or years might have
"been shaved from lead time on
, this bomber, but aircraft execu
tives, talking with these aaport
, ers, all said -that' Pentagon and
Air Force indecision, red' tape,
inept programming and too-close
supervision of manufacturing de
tails caused heedless stretch-outs
of lead time.
Underscores Accusation!
An ,-exarnination of 'the -"life
history" of the B52 illustrates
and underscores many of the in
dustry's accusations. The bomber
development cycle, 'expressed in'
time spans chosen by these "re
porters only for the purpose of
illustrating various "phases of the
B52 program, went as follows:
First Time' Span: (32 to '36
months)' After thinking about
a big bomber -during 1945, the
(then) Army' Air Force in Feb
ruary, 1946, invited aircraft
companies to submit proposals
for "preliminary studies" on
such a plane.. Boeing's proposal
was accepted and the company
was told in June,- 1346, to go
ahead with further study and
design work. The Army Air.
Force'order, However", was down
the wrong track for which, perhaps,-
it cannot, be wholly
blamed. ',
The mistake was. in thinking
of the future bomber as a turbo
prop airplane; one 'powered by
jet engines. hboked to propellers.
At that time, the pure jet engine
as we know it today was not re
garded as a. long-range power
plant.. " ' . .
During this time span, how
ever, both Boeing and the Air
Force (which became a separate
service in 1947) were studying
the enticing new jets studying
them in a quiet sort of. way, ap
parently -without telling each
other. .Boeing even made -some
tentative designs of"a big bomb
er powered by. jets. '
- Second- Time Spanf (approxi
mate one week) -One day in
October, ,1948 ' two years and
four months" after telling Boeing
to study and design a turbo-prop-bember
the Air Foroe had a
surprise for the company. "And
Boeing had a 'surprise for the
Air Force:
Privately .Favored Jets
'-'On that-day, according to offi
cial Boeing accounts," company
executives .went- to the Air
Force's Air Materiel Command
in Dayton, Ohio, to report on
the turbo-prop bomber. They
now were privately favoring the
uje of jet engines. Then came
the Air Force surprise.
"In spite. of previous indica
tions," an Air Force colonel told
the Boeing officials, "we no
longer believe this (turbo-prop)
type of airplane can be counted
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mind.
"What' we're interested in as
of now," he said, breaking the
news gently, "is a look at what
can be done in the way of a
long-range bomber powered by
pure jets."
Though the " Air Torce had
said nothing previously to Boe
ing about its change of mind on
power plants, ana had let the
.company proceed with work on
the turbo-prop . airplane, the
colonel now went on to tell Boe
ing officials about a hot new. jet
engine being developed by Pratt
&. wnitney, the-J57.
Some quizzical glances must
have been exchanged by the
Boeing men. For they already
had talked -with .Pratt & Whit
ney about the J57-and bad even
made certain suggestions which
had been incorporated' into the
new engine.
"What can you do with this
new engine in the way of a
specific design?" the colonel
asked.
"We'll come in Monday morn
ing with a new airplane," a Boe
ing official said with a straight
face. . ' .
Not fUdicall y Different
On Monday morning, after a
week' end of overhauling of their
"tentative designs of a jet-powered
bomber and .after some
happy' but furious recalculation
of weight factors, the Boeing
men were back in the colonel's
office with a -33-page loose-leaf
volume of drawings of a bomber,
not radically different from to
day's B52. They had worked out
not only the basic mathematical
elements of the design, but en
gineering Vice President Ed
Wells had whittled out a balsa
wood model, -which is displayed
proudly today in- the Boeing
office jn Seattle, Wash.
This is it,".- exclaimed the
colonel.
It may seem iurprisine that
officials of. a big aircraft com
pany should be dealing with an
officer of' colonel's rank on : a
project of this omportance. But
the fact is that officers of 'even
lesser rank majors, captains,
even lieutenants are vested
with liasison authority over multi-million-dollar-aircraft
projects.
Under, of course, the higher
brass in the Pentagon. That's, one
reason for the delays.
Third Time- Span- (li months):
One full yean later the Air
Force- formally authorized Boe
ing to go ahead with engineering
work on two- prototypes of the
jet bomber. The formal authori
zation had been preceded by in-
iomai approval from tha Air
Force.
Design Switch Processed
During this period, the design
switch from turbo-props to jet
engines was being processed
through the Pentagon mill which
grinds out its decisions in its
own fashion. But Boeing, sens
ing :th'at the matter probably
was -clinched, went ahead with
a start pn the wooden "mock
up" which precedes- construction
of a flyable prototype, and with
the first of an innumerable di
versity of : engineering investi
gations. . . .
" And a 'good thing, too. The
Truman" Administration was
Columbia Pact
Would Give Oregon
Stronger Voice
Salem CU.R)- Approval by
the Columbia Interstate Com
pact commission of a pact pro-,
hibiting diversion of any Colum
bia river, basin' waters, if rati
fied by the 1957 Legislature, will
give Oregon a stronger voice in
planning comprehensive basin
development, according to Word
received here today.
Charles H. Heltzel, Oregon
public utilities commissioner,
saia irom Spokane that approval
of the pact culminates five years
of work on the -part of the Ore
gon commission.
The pact was. signed yesterday
afternoon following, a two-day
meeting in Spokane.
Fair. Equitable Share
"The final draft of the com
pact provides that Oregon , shall
have a fair and equitable share
of power produced in the Col
umbia, river basin," Heltzel said.
"A previous objectionable al
location formula was stricken
from the draft at the- insistence
of the Oregon delegation" he
added.
State Sen. Paul Geddes, Rose
burg, vice-chairman of the com
pact commission, said approval
guarantees an adequate stream
flow for operation of Bonneville
and other downstream power fa
cilities. No appropriation for upstream
irrigation will be permitted that
.would interfere with the power
capacity of the downstream
plants, Geddes explained.
. Heltzel said the Oregon dele
gation was enthused over the
.new pact.
CHARRED POPCORN
E.vansville, Ind. (U.R) The
owner of a grain elevator which
caught fire was looking today
for someone to take 70,000 bush
els bf charred, popcorn .off his
hands. ' . .
cracking down on defense ex
penditures and the -military es
tablishment was being pared to
the bone. Boeing was forced to
lay .off 7,000 of its 30,000 em
ployees in Seattle.
In September, 1949, the So
viets exploded their first atomic
Time Span:. (24-25
months) In the closing months
of 1949, Washington, tensely re.
viewed the nation's long-range
bomber capability. But with the
big B36 propeller-driven bomber
at that time in full' production,
a government-retained consult
ing agency' said this country
could not stand the cost of an
inventoy of bombers as expen
sive as the B52: Boeing had esti
mated for the government that
a tentatively - considered first
production order of the bombers
would cost a total of about $100,
000,000. Production models de
livered at the factory now- cost
about $6,000,000 each.) , .'
By this time, the U.S.S.R.,
now with an atomic bomb, prob
ably was starting production of
a jet intercontinental bomber
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capable of carrying the nuclear
weapon to the United States.
While the first prototype of
the new bomber, the XB52, was
being built under great difficult
ties and delays, especially with
jet engines, more direful news
hit Washington. The Korean war
started in June, 1950. By' No
vember, the Chinese Commu
nists had entered. the war, and
the long-range bomber issue be
came urgent all the more so
because the United States was
embarked on the hydrogen bomb
project.
Secretary Convinced
The then-Secretary of the Air
Force Thomas K. Finletter ,wa"s
convinced, moreover, . that the
Soviets were racing to make the
hydrogen bomb. He called for
haste in pushing the B52 into
production; even before the
flight of the prototype. But bud
get officers cried "impossible!"
They still deemed the cost of
$15,000,000 per plane "to be too
expensive for the United States.
. In February, 1952, Secretary
Finletter ordered 13 production
model B52s.
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Fifth Time Span (about 24
months): In .1952, Boeing
flew the two B52 prototypes, one
in April and the other in Octo
ber; and finally, in March, 1954,
the first production model was
rolled out of the plant.
The .Present: Today's pro
duction, rate of B52s is under
military security. Sen. Stuart
Symington (D.-,. Mo.) said last
May that five or six B52s were
being turned out monthly. That
rate has been increased since.
It is doubtful, though, if- B52
output is up to the Air Force
schedule of 20 per month, -although
Boeing officials say thai
they can' turn out 46 bombers
monthly if . ordered to do so by
the government."
"Whatever today's B52 produc
tion, output is temporarily
but seriously off schedule at
the moment because of a fuel
system defect. This developed
during flight operations on
models delivered earlier.- Boeing
is making adjustments on .B52s
on the production line to pre
clude defects in their fuel sys
tems: '-.'' .
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The stark fact, however, is'
that the United States is esti
mated to have turned, out only
a few more than 100 B52s since
inception of the plan llo years
ago. And the Soviets- are esti
mated to have produced possib-1!
ly 200 intercontinental Bisons
in the seven years since they are
believed to have launched their
long-rang Jet bomber programs
Tomorrow: Decisions on tie
making of modern warplanes. o
Copyright 138, Ie York
Herald Tribune, Inc.
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