Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1918 — "JUNK PLANES” AT BIG COST [ARTICLE]

"JUNK PLANES” AT BIG COST

SENATE COMMITTEE WILL REPORT EXPENSIVE EXPERIMENTING WITH AIRCRAFT. Waste of millions of dollars in experimenting with the English Bristol and other types of airplanes will be reported to congress by the senate military subcommittee investigating aircraft production, said members of the committee today in announcing that their report is now being drafted. Other findings of the committee, said Senator Thomas, the chairman, and some members, will be that 1,200 training planes costing f6,000,000 recently were “junked” because they were regarded as too dangerous for use; that several aviators have been killed in flights with dangerous types of planes and that amateurs in the engineering and administrative sections have contributed to thedelay in production. Responsibility for part of the production delay was placed by committee men on the former aircraft production board, but they said that with the work now under the direction of John D. Ryan, director general of production, and Major General Kenly, the prospects for the future are much improved. All members of the committee were agreed that the Liberty motor is a complete success. It is too heavy for the Bristol plane, senators said, and that type, so successful in Great Britain, has been abandoned by the war department Charles E. Hughes and Attorney Gen. Gregory, who have been holding hearings in the middle west in the aircraft investigation ordered by President Wilson, heard additional witnesses here today. It was said at the department of justice that later in the week Mr. Hughes would continue the hearings in Buffalo and other eastern cities where manufacturing plants are located. The itinerary, however, has not yet been arranged.