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Production Facilities and Availability of Helicopters

In many respects present production of helicopter manufacturers must also be considered as the inevitable product of the Korean incident. 

The helicopter industry which produced approximately 175 aircraft in 1949 was not prepared for the flood of military orders which started in the summer of 1950. The volume of military orders vastly exceed its limited capacity. Production problems of the the industry were further multiplied by the imperative needs of the military for large helicopters of advanced design. This has necessitated the engineering of advanced helicopter designs without the benefit of adequate basic research and the commitment of these designs to production with a minimum of prototype development and service testing. The result has been the disruption of the balance which normally exists between specific product engineering, research and production. 

Whereas design engineering has advanced through its third phase (See Table 2.1), and is now moving into the fourth, production methods and basic aerodynamic research remain, as yet, at the stage associated with Phase III (1940-1949). Complex helicopter designs, moving directly into production from the drawing boards of engineers, have created production scenes similar to those experienced by fixed-wing manufacturers during the period 1941 through 1943. Definite shortages of skilled personnel confront the manufacturer. Present plant capacity is in process of rapid and continuous expansion. The sight of half-finished foundations, walls and roods is more commonplace than exceptional. Production methods, seriously hampered by lack of proper tooling, require infinitely more planning than available time has permitted. Subcontracting of parts, sub-assemblies, and even major assemblies, is admittedly excessive. Inspection procedures lean heavily toward "100% Inspection", and the sub-contractor's inspection is repeated by the military staff there; so that there is in fact "Quadruple 100% Inspection" or "400% Inspection." When the industry is ready for adoption of more modern inspection procedures, appreciable reductions in cost will be possible. Continued dislocation of the manufacturing balance tends progressively to complicate the production process. A proper production flow, necessary to attain volume output, becomes increasingly difficult to establish. 

Military requirements will continue to exceed the capacity, both present and planned, of major helicopter manufacturers until and least 1955 so that the immediate outlook is for continued difficulty in attaining a proper balance between the different manufacturing functions. Although information as to the number of helicopters which the military have on order is

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