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Page Two / THE KELLET NEWS / [[top left margin]] The Kellett News / Published Monthly By and For The Employees of / KELLET AUTOGIRO CORPORATION / 58th Street and Grays Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. / EDITORS / H. A. Beach / Evelyn Sparmaker Haig Kurkjian Cyril Spargue / BUSINESS MANAGER-James E. Robertson [[/top left margin]] Vol. 1-No. 13 February-1942 [[main text left column]] Time Called / THIS is no time for day dreaming. We´ve already done enough of that, and now time is called. Planes in sufficient numbers are not yet pouring into vital sectors. We failed those gallant defenders of Wake Island. We are putting a terrific burden upon MacArthur and his men - all Americans. We are witnessing the onward push of the Japs past Hong Kong to Singapore and to the Dutch East Indies. Will it go on to Australia? Will it reach our Pacific Coast, to Panama? There must be some good reason why the British are falling back in Libya. There´s a great cry for tanks but greater cry for planes. Are we doing our best to answer that call? Are you doing your best? We fear the answer for America awakened has never failed. / We, of Kelletts have become a part in the program of build-airplanes, fighters and bombers. Our lives are dedicated to seeing that our boys are not needlessly sacrificed,-and they are today for lack of planes. That again brings up the question: Are we doing our best? / Profit making is not the issue today. Our profits will come in the security of our land, and the liberties and freedom we Americans demand throughout our stations in life. / Even tho´ we are at war, menaced on two fronts, with dear friends or loved ones facing the enemy, we are leading normal lives, enjoying, the comforts of home. It´s true, we are paying a price-heavier taxation, temporary loss of certain liberties, higher cost of some commodities, scarcity in others, but after all how little that price as as compared with the price being paid by some of our boys, as also people in subjugated countries. / We are at war. We are given the task of providing the sinews of war. Let´s not fail. Keep ´em flying! [[/main text left column]] The Will To Win / (Continued from page 1) / "will" to accomplish the super-human meeting cheerfully and willingly the sacrifices that are entailed. Without this "will" the confidence is worth about as much as that expressed by Joe Louis' challengers before each fight. / This country of ours is what it is today because our forefathers had the "will" to accomplish the impossible, and to put up with the hardships, which inevitably follow warfare. That "will" still lies in us, but is is not as yet as thoroughly aroused as it must be. The sooner it is fully stirred to action the shorter will be this war and the fewer will be our losses. It is always present in our fighting men, but it must be felt by everyone of us if we are to give them the support they deserve. / We can well be proud of the opportunity which has befallen [[main text right column]] us. Our workmanship is "the cream of the crop." There is not an airplane to which we supply parts, which is not outstanding. The Martin "Maryland" and "Baltimore", Curtiss "Tomahawk" and "Kittyhawk", Consolidated "Liberator" and "Cataline" Bombers, Bell "Aircobra"; - the accomplishments of these planes are cited almost daily. We will play an important part in the Brewater "Buccaneer" Dive Bomber and the Republic "Lancer" and "Thunderbolt". Concerning the latter, General Arnold said: / "The Thunderbolt eclipses in fighting ability such fine first line airplanes as the Spitfire and Messerschmitt." / We should all take pride in the accomplishments of these planes. We must all redouble our efforts to get more of them on the fighting line. [[main text middle column]] [[image of man facing left at desk]] COL. JOHN H. JOUETT Confusion has been in the minds of all of us concerning governmental activities in the preparedness and prosecution of war, its many phases and ramifications. Colonel John H. Jouett, President of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, Inc., an authority of note, delivered an address before the Economic Club, at the Hotel Astor in New York on January 27, 1942, in which he gave the most comprehensive presentation of the war situation, to date. We asked permission of the "Chamber" to publish this address in the Kellett News, feeling certain it would be of interest to our readers. [[beginning of speech text]] Text of Address by Col. John H. Jouett The fact that so large and distinguished a gathering of our nation's leaders permits me to address you here this evening is evidence of the importance which our people now attach to Air Power. No words of mine are needed to enhance the present realization of what Air Power means in this war. The daily record of the holocaust on all fronts is painfully convincing. The need for our overwhelming dominance in the air, in every war zone, on land and sea, becomes more apparent day by day. The ghastly story of what happens to a nation that cannot fight fire with fire has been the most tragic lesson of the war since it first set Europe aflame. Since Pearl Harbor brought the fear of bombs and poison gas to all our seaboard cities, there has been among us much self-reproach for not having been more extensively prepared in the air. Do you think that Japan would have risked war with us had we possessed our total potential air strength? Do you believe for an instant that even the mad-man Hitler and his gang would have dared to start war anywhere if the United States and Britain had been thoroughly armed in the air, and had agreed to use it for the maintenance of international law and order? Obviously not! But I am not here to dwell upon the past. I remind you of what might have been, in order to explain why our task is so fantastically huge today. We have been singing that we did not want to set the world on fire while others have been doing it. Now we have the duty of setting a few fires ourselves. And if we do not make all speed, we will have still more ground to cover when we start blasting this evil out of the world. We, who are familiar with what can be accomplished by modern [[middle right main column]] military aircraft, know what our enemies might find possible to do to us here in this country. It is entirely possible for them to slip past our most efficient and far-flung guardians of the sky, because the seas of the air are three-dimensional and the advantage lies with the intruder. As far back as the first World War the Germans were busily developing planes to be carried across the Atlantic by submarine, ready to be launched against New York from points only a few miles offshore. We realize, of course, that air raids by submarine-based airplanes would be in the nature of "token raids"--but with Pearl Harbor to remember, we should not be surprised at anything they do. The Axis air power is a present the greatest threat to our success in this war and our security here. It will remain so until we gain supremacy and turn the tables on them. It places an additional burden on us, because while supplying equipment to our air forces and those of our allies on all fronts, we must, at the same time, supply enough good planes to guard more than 3,000 miles of coastlines. That is why everybody is interested in what we are doing about it. It is why you hear so much about speeding up production and getting more planes to the battle zones. And it is possibly why aviation is being offered as the main attraction in some of our Congressional investigations. It is in the public mind. It will stay there for the duration of the war; of that you may be sure. I cannot speak in detail about the other defense industries. I do know that they are doing a magnificent job. I have done considerable traveling of late, and I have seen their vast programs well under way. When the American war production spigot is turned on full force, we will see a flow of munitions of all kinds that will even amaze us here; and which by its awful weight, its steadily increasing and inexorable weight, must strike relentlessly at our enemies, to their consternation and ultimately their utter despair. In Washington, where our daily work brings us into constant contact with the defense agencies of the Government, where officials and other personnel are working day and night, and in many cases seven days a week, there is nowhere near the confusion that one might expect. This is an appalling task for the officers and officials who are managing a war that involves all continents. It is only when we are drawn into one of the countless problems, and get on the inside, that we quite understand its complexities. It is not easy. It is no small part of the hell of a modern war. We are fortunate in our allies. They will prove better than those of the Axis. It was my good fortune to serve with the Chinese Government when they were setting up their military aviation. They are good fighters. They have a really great leader in Chiang Kai Shek. Americans will not regret becoming comrades in arms with the courageous Chinese who were the first in this war; and who will be in it to the last. That, as well as the sterling fighting qualities of our other allies, make it imperative that we provide them, besides our own air forces, with the greatest number of aircraft that the United States can produce. Our planes are needed on all fronts. They will be required in greater numbers when we take the offensive in all war areas. I hardly need to tell you what the program is today. The President of the United States gave us our orders in his historica message to Congress early this month. They call for 60,000 planes this year and 125,000 in 1943. It has been pointed out that this means one warplane every eight minutes during the next twelve months and one every four minutes next year. It means that this year we must approximately triple last year's production and then double that output in 1942. It means much more than that. You will understand that in any war everything possible must be done to prevent the enemy having knowledge of what is being prepared for him. In this war the elements of secrecy and surprise are particularly vital, because on one side we have an enemy that is very ingenious and clever, while on the other side another enemy is clever at copying the inventions of others. Therefore, we must exercise the utmost caution. Still, you have a right to know how we are getting on with this venture. Our Army and Navy want you to know. They are proud of the service they are rendering the country today. They cannot say much about what they are doing; but they are accomplishing wonders with what they have. They long have planned for mass use of the aircraft equipment which we design and turn out for them; and they realize their awful responsibility. But, after all, they can use only what the nation gives them. For example, it became our Government policy to send planes to England and France at the start of the war. This was at a time when our own air forces were being authorized to expand. As the tempo of war made still greater demands, we sent increasing numbers of planes abroad--not only to England but to Africa, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and to China. Then we sent planes to Russia. I have not the slightest criticism to offer. The point I am trying to make is that our air forces to date have received only a very small percentage of what we have produced. They have made the best of it. I suggest that you take this into consideration when the question is raised as to why Americans are not here or there over the front in force. The reason why the President felt confident in setting up the gigantic aircraft program for this year and next is found in the performance of the recent past. Some months prior to the outbreak of the war in Europe, Britain and France placed orders here and indicated that still larger purchases would follow. That gave most of our larger companies an opportunity to develop quantity production methods, and educate subcontractors and purveyors in providing large quantities of planes, train labor by the thousands instead of a few score as in the past; and finally, it paved the way toward standardization of parts and gadgets and in some cases whole models, especially trainers. Frozen models can be turned out at a faster rate than machines on which changes are made from time to time. You will recall that when the President, in May 1940, told Congress that he wanted the industry to gear up to a capacity of 50,000 planes a year, most people thought (Continued on page 6)
