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fiscal year 1940 and the additional reserve airplanes contained in the 1939 program will be required by that time. Without an adequate number of airplanes for maintaining the proficiency of this potentially very valuable emergency group, the Government's investment in their training will be jeopardized.

FLYING TRAINING FOR AVIATION RESERVE

Mr. UMSTEAD. Admiral, inactive cadets could be given a refresher course in the latter half of the calendar year 1939, which would be the fiscal year 1940, just as well, could they not, as during the first part of the calendar year 1939, which would be in the fiscal year 1939?

Admiral Cook. The question of the maintenance of proficiency in flying and a refresher course, Mr. Chairman, are two different things. Under the present rules of the Department, active Reserve aviators are required to do a certain amount of syllabus flying each month throughout the year, which maintains them in a position capable for use immediately should any emergency arise.

Mr. UMSTEAD. What kind of flying?
Admiral Cook. Syllabus flying.

As to a refresher course, where a man does not fly for a number of months, say for 6 months, he is considered to have lost his facility in flying, and he is not permitted to fly until he goes to Pensacola and takes a refresher course, which, in the end, considering transportation and costs while there, is as great or a greater charge against the total appropriation than the cost of maintaining their proficiency, and would have this very great handicap, that if an emergency should arise prior to that time we would have a number of Reserve aviators who would not be proficient in flying.

Mr. UMSTEAD. You make the point that it is unwise to permit them to go 6 months without flying?

Admiral Cook. Yes, sir; 6 months is about the limit a man is permitted to go without flying without being taken off flying status and sent to Pensacola for a refresher course.

Mr. UMSTEAD. When the first unit of the aviation cadets pas from active status into the Naval Reserve, it will be the policy of the Navy to require them to fly at frequent intervals in order to keep them proficient in flying?

Admiral Cook. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. They are attached to a Naval Reserve base where they get a certain number of specified hours' flying each month.

Mr. UMSTEAD. And if that is done they will not need a refresher course?

Admiral Cook. No, sir; and it is for that purpose that these planes

are necessary.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Not for a refresher course at all?

Admiral Cook. No, sir; not for a refresher course at all. It is entirely for the maintenance of their proficiency, to be able to meet an emergency at any time it arises.

NUMBER AND LOCATION OF NAVAL RESERVE BASES

Mr. SCRUGHAM. How many Naval Reserve bases have you where they are given instruction in flying?

Admiral Cook. Thirteen, sir.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. Have you a list of them, Admiral?

Admiral Cook. Yes, sir; I can tell you where they are. On the West coast there are Reserve bases at the following locations: Seattle, Oakland, and Long Beach. On the East coast, at Squantum, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami. The inland Reserve bases are located at Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. Both St. Louis and Kansas City have Reserve bases?

Admiral Cook. Yes, sir.

NUMBER OF PROGRAM PLANES ON HAND ON OCTOBER 31, 1937, BY TYPES

The following data indicate the situation as of October 31, 1937, with respect to aircraft now on hand and the aircraft due under existing contracts:

TABLE A.-Number of program planes on hand on October 31, 1937, by types

Under this classification are included all planes except those listed in the following subparagraph (b). They are planes that are still available for the performance and maneuvers for which they were built. They are neither obsolete nor experimental:

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Number

Regular Navy

259

117

213

170

3

52

21

162

1, 002

Mr. UMSTEAD. Admiral, does that total given by you disregard or include the spare or reserve planes?

Admiral Cook. It includes the Regular Navy spare or reserve planes, Mr. Chairman, but not Naval Reserve planes or spares.

With the exception of "experimental" airplanes, all planes listed as unusable in the following table are so termed because they are obsolete and restricted in flight. They cannot with safety perform the maneuvers required by fleet missions, such as dive-bombing and other violent combat maneuvers. They can, however, be used for such duty as their flying restrictions permit in connection with student training and various utility purposes.

Mr. PUMLEY. Before they are used for student training, are they reconditioned and put in proper shape?

Admiral Cook. They are always very carefully checked, and very carefully examined, and, in most cases, given a major overhauling when they come from the fleet for student training. They are safe

planes, but not fitted for the character of use required of them with the fleet.

Those planes listed as usable in the following table are only barely so, as far as fleet missions are concerned. They are almost all in the usable status only while awaiting deliveries of suitable replacements.

TABLE B.-Number of nonprogram planes on hand on Oct. 31, 1937, by types, divided between those usable and unusable in lieu of program planes

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Being used in the fleet with certain flight restrictions until replacements are delivered.

132

341

? Being used for training and administrative purposes ashore until replacements are delivered. Restricted to minor utility work in areas having sheltered water available for landing. Experimental airplanes are unsuitable for scheduled operations because of their nonstandard equipment and installations.

Of these the majority are due or overdue for delivery and will be delivered within the next few months. With increased complication of design, manufacturing difficulty and need for special materials and parts, it has become very difficult to make accurate allowance for the time factor in building the more recent types of airplanes.

TABLE (C).-Number of program planes on order on Oct. 31, 1937, by types, and the appropriation chargeable

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On the list here showing 652 planes on order, it will be noted that some of them are as much as 17 months overdue.

Mr. UMSTEAD. What is that caused by, Admiral?

Admiral Cook. It was caused by particular difficulties in the construction, scarcity of materials, a strike, and a major change which

he Bureau of Aeronautics made in the plane, to prevent the pilot's ead from being crushed if the plane turned over on its back. It as something not foreseen when the plane was originally ordered. Mr. UMSTEAD. Are your deliveries being made as rapidly as was nticipated?

Admiral Cook. No, sir. As you will see from this list, Mr. Chairan, almost all of these planes are overdue for periods varying from months to 17 months.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Is there anything that the Department can do to peed up the deliveries?

Admiral Cook. There is nothing I know of. I would like to ask Captain Kraus to answer that.

Captain KRAUS. I do not foresee anything that the Department an do to speed up deliveries, other than urging the various contracors to make all possible progress, and demanding, in some cases, riority in the assignment of labor and facilities necessary to the ompletion of these contracts, which has had some beneficial effect. It happens that in some cases there has been difficulty in obtaining n adequate supply of labor-that is, skilled in all of the various ranches-and that resulted in delays in organizing the larger force hat had to be organized, coming out of an extreme slump and going nto a period of great activity. In other words, those plants were somewhat handicapped by an inordinate rush of expansion of their forces, but they should be working out of that now, and they apparently are.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Can you advise us as to whether or not foreign orders have interfered in any way with the delivery of the Department's planes?

Captain KRAUS. I do not think foreign orders have.

TABLE D.-Number of program planes, by types, for which funds are available, but which were not on order on Oct. 31, 1937 (indicating the year of the chargeable appropriation)

(Preliminary steps toward procurement have been taken and procurement will be completed prior to the end of the current fiscal year. Estimates indicate that these planned procurements will obligate the remaining available funds)

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Bids received. Contracts should be awarded by Jan. 1, 1938.

⚫ Includes 15 training and 27 scout-bombing planes for Naval Reserve.

The next is number of planes by types which were washed out during each of the last 5 completed fiscal years, that is, transferred from program to nonprogram category, due to obsolescence and crash

losses.

Under this classification are included all planes that were removed each year from the program category. The majority of them were shifted to the nonprogram category for reasons discussed above. Others were eliminated entirely because of crash or damage beyond economical repair.

TABLE E.-Number of planes, by types, washed out during each of the last 5 completed fiscal years; that is, transferred from program to nonprogram category, due to obsolescence and crash losses

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Mr. UMSTEAD. Of the number given in that table for 1937, how many were shifted to the nonprogram category?

Lieutenant STROOP. All of them, Mr. Chairman. Forty of them had crashed, and the other 210 were obsolescent.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Admiral, if I understand the statements which have been included in the record, our plane situation, on October 31, 1937, was as follows:

Program planes, or I believe you called them Regular Navy planes?

Admiral Cook. Yes, sir.

Mr. UMSTEAD. One thousand and two.

Admiral Cook. That is correct, sir.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Program planes ordered and not delivered, 652.
Admiral Cook. That is correct, sir.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Program planes not ordered for which funds are available and for which orders will soon be placed, 248?

Admiral Cook. The number already ordered or actually in the process of being ordered is 248. Those not yet ordered, but for which available funds will be obligated before the end of the current fisca! year, total 72.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Nonprogram planes, usable planes, 473?

Admiral Cook. The number of nonprogram usuable planes, Mr. Umstead, is 132. That means unrestricted. The usable planes within a limited sense, 341.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Then the number of nonprogram planes, divided into the two divisions you have just mentioned, would equal 473! Admiral Cook. That is right, sir.

Mr. UMSTEAD. I understood you to say a few moments ago that the number of 1,002 included spares?

Admiral Cook. That is correct, sir. All figures that you have here are the total number of planes, including spares, and it is only when the term "operating planes" is used that spares are not included. Mr. UMSTEAD. Admiral, how do the planes built in this country compare with the planes of other countries?

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