Aviation industry

“ Machines are brought out and tested; pilots arrive from other flying grounds; there is a hum of activity in the workshops; and in regular batches, with this instructor and that, are pupils taught to handle a craft in flight. It is, to those who have only a vague knowledge of aviation, a surprise indeed to spend a day at an aerodrome. They imagine that the industry is no more than haphazard; that a few machines are built—mostly in small workshops, and that there is neither method nor organisation in their making. ”

“ America's aerospace industry has experienced enormous growth and development since the Wright brothers' first flight. It has strengthened our economy, created new business and recreational opportunities, freed us from many of the limits of time and distance, and made our Nation's aviation system the finest in the world. ”

“ A large commercial air fleet will provide, not only a reserve of men and machines, but it will keep in existence an aircraft industry, with its designing and constructional staffs, capable of quick and wide expansion in emergency; and such an industry will not be employed on the design of contrivances for use in a possible war, but on meeting the practical requirements of everyday air transport and navigation. ”

“ Because the whole industry is so new it probably has more difficulties proportionately than many others. Growing pains are inevitable. Aviation is only now emerging into the status of an industry. Hitherto it has been largely a jumble of gallant individual efforts. Even today, there are more independent producers of airplanes than there are automobile manufacturers. The survival of the fittest, with accompanying combinations, will come just as they have come in the motor industry. ”

“ Built on the foundation of this research and technology base, the U.S. aviation industry employs about 1,000,000 Americans, ranks second largest among U.S. manufacturing employers, contributes more than any other manufacturing industry to the U.S. balance of trade, and has replaced agriculture as first in net trade contribution. ”

“ The only result can be, from all the interest and importance attached to aviation, that after the war is over, large commercial uses will develop which will offer employment to those who go into the work at this time for military reasons. No one can predict exactly what turn the situation will take, but there is every indication that aviation has graduated from the primary class of experimental work and is to be considered now as an industry along with the automobile business, motor-boat business, etc. ”

“ When you consider the number of organizations operating commercial air routes, the increasing number of companies engaged in the manufacture of airplane parts, the widespread number of smaller companies engaged in aviation, it is easy to understand that there is a chance at the bottom of the ladder now. And the industry is growing so rapidly that every day sees that chance assuming larger proportions. ”

“ The creation of a central or universal office for the design of the various jigs used in the manufacture of aircraft, with power to decide the process of manufacture, although a somewhat far-reaching reform, would certainly eliminate a number of useless experiments made by the individual constructors, and would also greatly improve the interchangeability of the various components. In addition, fresh firms to the aviation industry would be at once acquainted with the general methods of manufacture, which should be of considerable assistance in expediting initial output. ”

“ Some of the best engineering41 talent of the world was diverted from many and various fields to the one task of supplying the demands of the military aeronauts for more speed, more power, more reliable motors, better materials and appliances. Thus the war not only perfected aeronautics—especially aviation—as an art, but practically created it as an industry. At the close of hostilities the world found itself in possession of a vast fleet of aircraft, a multitude of aircraft factories, and a great army of trained aeronauts. ”

“ This has been the case at the birth of every great development in human progress and will undoubtedly be the case with the science of flight. Until a field becomes standardized it offers extremes on both sides rather than a dull, dreary, but safe average.
As aviation runs into every phase of activity it will require every kind of man—manufacturer, scientist, mechanic, and flier. It offers problems more interesting and more complex than almost any others in the world. The field is new and virgin, the demand world-wide, and the rewards great. ”

“ It is well in these early days, when flight is with the general public a very special and occasional event, to remember what has happened since Watt developed the steam-engine only a few generations ago, when Columbus set the first ship westward, or when America's first train ran over its rough tracks near the Quincy quarries.
The development of aviation will be world-wide and will include all sorts and races of men. The nations all start pretty much abreast. Those which developed war air services have an advantage in material and experience, but this is a matter only for the moment. ”

“ In the near future perishable foods and other merchandise, which heretofore have taken several days to cross the country, will make the trip overnight.
With the coming of peace, air transport and commercial aviation will grow by leaps and bounds. All the leading airlines and many new ones are planning expanded schedules and looking forward to a great boom in air travel. New transport planes are going into production in the plants of all America’s well-known aircraft manufacturers. ”

“ Scientific development has gone so infinitely far ahead of actual production that as yet aviation is not being put to a fraction of its use.
Even more serious, however, is the general public failure to realize the gift which is within their reach. Flying was first a circus stunt and later a war wonder. The solid practical accomplishments have been lost sight of in the weird or the spectacular. ”

“ In the three generations since that historic flight in 1903, aviation has grown to become one of America's greatest enterprises; one of its largest employers; a fundamental ingredient in the national economy ”

“ The first landing on the water by an aeroplane fitted with airbags, the first flight from the deck of a ship, the first flight up the Thames, not to mention many other incidents in the progress of record-making, must all be credited to the Short factory. The brothers held that the right way to advance aviation was to strengthen the resources of the aeroplane-designing firms, so that they might carry out their ideas without being dependent on Government demands, and the extraordinary success of the Short designs for aeroplanes and seaplanes did much to promote that creed. ”

“ Why, the United States government, to increase the interest in aviation, and to encourage inventors, has offered a prize of twenty thousand dollars to the first person who takes his airship from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or rather, from New York to San Francisco with but two landings. ”

“ A big plane must have two engines, one of which could keep the plane flying if the other failed. Boeing went to work with this in mind.
Near Los Angeles, the young man who had been dreaming of big commercial transport planes since the Wright Brothers’ trials at Fort Meyer, also was thinking of two-engined transports that could fly on one engine. From the time Donald Douglas’ World Cruisers had circled the globe, his aircraft had grown larger and larger. His orders, however, were for Army, Navy, and Coast Guard planes; not for great commercial airliners. ”

“ Military air supremacy can best be assured by the intensive development of industrial air organization for commercial purposes. The conception of civil aviation as the mainstay of air power as a whole is right. Service aviation is bound by technical and financial limits; its scope confined to the requirements of war. Civil aviation, on the other hand, opens out a prospect of productive expansion. The steady growth of the Continental services is already beginning to demonstrate the importance of air transport. ”

“ Several transportation companies are already organized for that purpose.
All the above types of aircraft are so designed that pontoons or flying-boats can be substituted for wheels and landing-gear, and so that most aircraft manufacturers [195] can make both. Of course, in most cases the boats and the motors are made by different manufacturers. Several companies, however, construct aeroplanes complete with motors.
Naturally no manufacturing industry can exist without a potential market. ”

“ Although America was actually the birthplace of the airplane, many years passed after the first flight of the Wright Brothers before there was any real consideration of the military or civil values of aviation. That aviation did progress at all in its early years was due to the efforts of a few fledgling military fliers, a group of barnstormers, and a handful of aircraft builders.
Working closely together, these men flew and experimented with our first flying machines. They risked their lives time and again in order to learn everything possible about flying and the flying machine. ”

“ General aviation provides for the cultivation of a workforce of engineers, manufacturing and maintenance professionals, and pilots who secure the Nation’s economic success and defense. (4) General aviation contributes to well-paying manufacturing and technology jobs in the United States, and these products are exported in great numbers, providing a positive trade balance. ”

“ In aeronautics, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has conducted an effective and productive research and technology program that continues to contribute materially to the enduring preeminence of United States civil and military aviation. Two-thirds of the world's commercial aircraft fleet is American designed and built, accounting for some $10 billion in positive trade balance in 1982. ”

“ Unless some startling innovation—a much cheaper fuel for example, or a successful helicopter—revolutionizes commercial aviation, its near-future is unlikely to stray beyond the extension of airways over distances of about five hundred to two thousand miles. These are likely to be covered mostly by heavier-than-air craft, although, as in Germany, dirigibles will have their place.
Extension of air traffic is especially probable in industrial and agricultural countries of large area, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, India and the South American republics. ”

“ As we look over the record of the astounding progress of American aviation in forty-two years, let us salute our military leaders who have visualized the need for air power; the men who have designed and built our great engines and airplanes, and the leaders of commercial aviation who have made air travel fast, safe, and economical. ”

“ Then the exploiters, eager for money and fame; men who develop the possibilities of the machines, always asking more and getting more in the way of achievement with each new model built. Though covering a period of less than a half score of years, aviation already has its second generation of flyers, pupils trained by the pioneers, young and ambitious, eager to explore the new element that has been made possible by their mentors. ”

“ For men who may have had some experience in the assembly of airplanes at factories, or of rigging them at flying-fields, there is great opportunity. Expert riggers who know their craft are few and hard to get. They are invaluable for maintaining a machine in flying condition. The use of airplanes in this country will require men for rigging, for truing up the wires and struts. Each airplane must be overhauled after a few hours of flight to discover hidden weaknesses and to tighten sagging wires. ”

“ The foregoing outline of the development of aviation from the earliest times up to the war—a story of human endeavour and achievement in the air with its attendant dangers and difficulties—is not without value in endeavouring to assess that which has since occurred. ”

“ Aviation has transformed modern life. The Golden Age of Flight during the 1920s and 1930s captured the imagination of the American people, and soon opened commercial opportunities for transport and trade. Two world wars led to the development of the modern U.S. Air Force, strengthening our national security and enabling us to command the battlefield and protect our homeland from the sky. Aviation has also connected far-away nations, changing the way we conduct business, spend our leisure time, and spread new ideas. ”

“ As a result, a recent report stated that there were 248 factories in the United States making planes, with over 150,000 men working on aircraft. In a single year this giant industry has sprung up, and the [231] mechanical genius of America has been focussed upon this latest problem: the heavier-than-air machine.
It is inconceivable that our country, which can boast the invention of the airplane, should in peace times allow this great industry to wane. For a long time we slept while France was forging ahead in the design and construction of machines. ”

“ These ambiences had a crucial impact on the outcome of the airplane performance and Aviation milestones in both continents. The work of individuals and the industrial development in regard to Aviation were analyzed to fundament the hypothesis that the French and Industrial Revolutions played a major role in the development of Aviation. ”