Truman v. a Giant

The Truman war-watchdog committee exploded in a new report, this time on a half-dozen phases of U.S. aircraft production, with a special shelling reserved for Curtiss-Wright Corp., second largest U.S. war contractor (first: General Motors).

Blow One. On a flat greensward near Cincinnati sprawls the immense Lockland factory of Wright Aeronautical Corp., hailed in 1941 as the largest single-storied industrial plant in the world. The Truman Committee sniffed trouble there last January, reported it to Wright and the Army Air Forces. After four months, while Wright and the AAF found little wrong, Truman moved in, took 1,300 pages of testimony. Some points:

>Wright "was producing and causing the Government to accept defective and substandard material, by the falsification of tests, by destruction of records, by forging inspection reports.

>"More than 25% of engines built at the plant have consistently failed in one or more major parts during a three-hour test run. . . .

>"Air Force inspectors [at Wright] were transferred because they absolutely refused to accept material which they knew to be faulty. Inspectors were threatened with transfer if they did not accept engines which were leaking gasoline."

AAF sent dignified Lieut. General William S. Knudsen, ex-General Motorsman, to head an investigation of its own. Knudsen findings:

"Careless inspection existed [but] the feeling among some in the plant that many defective engines [were] shipped . . . was not substantiated."

Truman rebuttal: "This conclusion is wishful thinking . . . tendency to minimize. [Knudsen's] report assumes an unnecessarily defensive attitude. [Its] inspection was made after the most flagrant derelictions had been called to the attention of the Wright Aeronautical Corp."

The report, prepared mainly by Washington's Senator Mon C. Wallgren, aimed a side blow at the conduct of certain Air Forces officials "during the committee's investigation. These officials, apparently led by the Chief Inspector for the Army Air Forces, Lieut. Colonel Frank C. Greulich . . . attempted to intimidate witnesses ... made misstatements under oath."

Blow Two. Truman's next punch was directed more at AAF judgment than at Curtiss: "The [Curtiss] P-40 fighter planes have performed valuable work on the various fighting fronts, but were relatively obsolete when we entered the war. . . . The committee regrets the earlier [Army] decisions which concentrated so large a portion of our production on a plane which, although usable, is at best a second choice. The North American P-51 [Mustang], characterized by both the British and the Army Air Forces as the most aerodynamically perfect pursuit plane in existence, was in production in 1941. . . . It would have been preferable to increase production of Mustangs, decrease production of Curtiss Warhawks." (P40 production at Curtiss-Wright's Buffalo plant was scheduled for full capacity this year, said Wright's General Manager William Davey.)

Blow Three. The Navy gave Curtiss $27 million to build a plant in Columbus, Ohio, threw in $98 millions more for Curtiss to produce its dive-bomber, the SB₂C (Helldiver). Reported Truman: "Production was to have commenced in December 1941. Production did not actually commence until September 1942. ... To date Curtiss-Wright has not succeeded in producing a single SB₂C which the Navy considers to be usable as a combat airplane. . . . The knowledge of the inactivity of the plant has become widely known among the friends & relatives of the [21,012] workmen, has had a bad effect upon morale in that area.

"Despite this unsatisfactory performance, Curtiss-Wright has advertised the Helldiver plane as 'the world's best dive bomber.' [It] expended in such eulogistic self-praise $12,448. . . ."

Decision. Truman sum-up on Curtiss-Wright: "Some of its products have been exceptionally good, and its performance as a whole has been creditable." Example: the committee praised the successful cargo-carrying C-46, Curtiss-Wright's outstanding plane contribution to the war. (At week's end, in Trenton, N.J., the U.S. Justice Department sued Wright and eight of its officers for damages, accusing them of selling the Government "unsatisfactory" airplane motor materials.)

Counter-Blow. Dapper Guy Warner Vaughan, ex-automobile racer who heads giant Curtiss-Wright, answered Truman's attacks: "The P-40 has been continuously modernized, [has] shot down from three to 20 enemy planes for every P-40 lost. . . . The company emphatically denies that Wright has at any time sold products known to the company to have contained defective or substandard parts."

This week Under Secretary of War Robert Patterson minimized the report, said the situation was much less sensational. He claimed that vigorous remedial action had been taken immediately after the Knudsen investigation, denied that any engines "known to be defective" were ever placed in service.

But the U.S. public generally seemed well content that the Truman war-watchdogs keep on baying, whenever and wherever they scented bad management.

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