Word: air
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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President Roosevelt followed up this warning by saying that $150,000,000 would have to be added to next year's Navy budget if work was to go ahead on six new battleships. Besides expanding the fleet and the ground forces, air forces must be geared up by mass production of planes, as they are doing abroad (see p. 18). And private utilities must be stimulated to spend $1,000,000,000 if the U. S. is to have adequate wartime power resources. Observers took all this as a tip: watch for billion-dollar Army & Navy items...
...primarily concerned last week. Pursuit plane defense is not so soundly organized. Bomber speeds of 250 m.p.h. so nearly equal (and in some types exceed) pursuit speeds that defending planes can no longer count on overtaking offensive squadrons. Hence, to be of use, pursuit must be in the air and ready to fight when bombers arrive at a given point. To be there, pursuit must have warning of the approach and course of enemy bombers. How to provide that warning was the object of last week's game...
...successive nights and mornings, the Air Corps' Brig. General Arnold N. Krogstad sent Boeing B-17 ("Flying Fortress") and Douglas B18 bombers flying 180 miles southward from Langley Field, Va., to Fort Bragg. Ordered to fly at 4,000 feet the first night, to accustom the observers, bombers later went up to 18,000, 20,000 and 24,000 feet heights now practicable thanks to a new, secret bomb sight. Without fail, civilian groundlings heard or saw, got warnings to Fort Bragg within three minutes. On a headquarters defense map, lighted in red and green, winking bulbs "tracked...
...journalists and radiomen, this looked like complete success for General Gardner's wonderful net. Publicity was in charge of artillery officers who did not go out of their way to discourage this impression, feeling with the Army at large that the Air Corps has got altogether too many bouquets in recent years. Resentful airmen, aware that they were ordered to fly predetermined courses under conditions which would not obtain in war time, boiled out of their ships with profane explanations. Finally bald, patient General Gardner had to caution newsmen: "Nobody is trying to win a war here...
...Air Corps got some comfort from the biggest "blackout" yet staged by the U.S. Army. In part of the defense sector, 66 towns were darkened to find out: whether voluntary cooperation by citizens could achieve a blackout efficient enough to baffle night bombers. Answer: No. Inability to darken scattered rural homes and keep cars off highways* in so large an area defeated the blackout. Bombers found their way with ease, theoretically wrecked Fort Bragg...