The Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from 1909 to 1921 by John H. Morrow

Author:John H. Morrow [Morrow, John H.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780817391430
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Published: 2017-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

In the rear the total mobilization begun in the Hindenburg Program continued. The factories delivered 900 aircraft in September 1917, advancing rapidly toward the Hindenburg Program’s spring 1918 production goal of 1,000 planes monthly, but the winter’s coal and material shortage and transportation crisis sent deliveries plummeting to 400 aircraft in January. The aviation inspectorate, under Maj. Wilhelm Siegert, responded with a flurry of activity.

The inspectorate concentrated on reorganizing its procurement bureaucracy and the aircraft industry and then coordinating procurement. In January 1917 it reorganized its aircraft depot under Maj. Felix Wagenführ and established an R-plane command to monitor the growing number of firms manufacturing the giant bombers. The two most noteworthy features of the new depot were its Scientific Information Bureau (Wissenschaftliche Auskunftei für Flugwesen, or WAF) and its department for evaluating captured aircraft.

Under the direction of Lt. Wilhelm Hoff (Res.), the WAF sought to coordinate all efforts in aviation science and to disseminate aeronautical information to the inspectorate, the Imperial Naval Office, research institutes, individual scientists and aircraft firms. Unfortunately Hoff neglected aircraft engines until late 1917. The department evaluating captured aircraft distributed its findings to the German industry and aviation press, and the captured aircraft also served as propaganda, displayed in a prize hall in Berlin.

In response to widespread manufacturers’ complaints about material shortages, Siegert insisted in January 1917 that the War Trade Association of the German Aircraft Industry (Kriegsverband der deutschen Flugzeugindustrie) be formed. By centralizing material procurement, he ultimately forced the syndication of the industry, as all the large companies joined to ensure material supplies and contracts. The association also agreed to place its members’ research at the WAF’s disposal and to establish a commission to set standards for aircraft parts. The war association thus further centralized aviation procurement, science, and technology.

After the formation of the War Trade Association, the inspectorate unleashed a barrage of orders intended to coordinate the efforts of army and aircraft industry contractors and subcontractors to increase deliveries. On 12 January the inspectorate announced plans to centralize all material procurement for the industry—for example, contracting with one firm for the production of all the sheet brass. Such coordination was not always successful: in early April the depot advised factories to send their airplane linen, unpainted and bleached, to one cotton factory for painting, only to rescind the order two weeks later because German railways were already overtaxed.

The inspectorate was further determined to rationalize the industry’s work methods and to match aircraft firms with prospective subcontractors. On 24 March Wagenführ instructed the construction inspectorates to avoid “absolutely” every “illogical” relationship (such as pairing north German subcontractors and south German factories) and to include the many capable metalworking and woodworking factories that were without contracts. He further instructed the aircraft industry to simplify work methods to save material and increase profits. The implementation of mass-production methods would improve licensed production, solving the problem of parts made by different licensed producers for the same craft still not being interchangeable.

Wagenführ prodded the manufacturers to maximize

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.