4
 
      7. Implementing the program.
 
      
 
 
a) Aircraft and Engines.
 
      One of the great difficulties of expansion has been that the 
      dictator countries were able to plan their programs in secret, 
      with the result that, by the time their full intentions had become 
      apparent, they had received a valuable start. A vast program 
      designed to overcome this serious handicap has been planned and 
      is now making rapid progress. In 1934, when expansion began, 
      there were 15 aircraft firms and 4 engine firms producing material 
      for the Air Ministry. In addition to these firms - and apart 
      from the very large expansion effected in their own capacity 
      - there are today 13 government factories manufacturing aircraft, 
      engines, aircrews, carburetors and bombs, while the general basis 
      of production has been immensely broadened by introducing into 
      the field of aircraft production such large engineering enterprises 
      as Vickers-Armstrong, Associated Electrical Industries, John 
      Brown and Company, Messrs. Harland and Wolff, Messrs. Denny Bros., 
      and the English Electric Company. Use is also being made of some 
      thousands of firms for sub-contracting work for aircraft production, 
      designed to cover 35% as a minimum, of the total man-hours involved 
      in construction. An indication of the extent, to which the basis 
      of airframe production has been expanded, can be obtained from 
      the following figures of employment: -
 
      
 
 
Men engaged in the airframe industry., including sub-contracting, 
      on the following dates:-
 
      January 1936 ............ 30,000
 
      January 1937 ............ 40,000
 
      January 1938 ............ 50,000
 
      January 1939 ............ 90,000
 
      January 1940 ........... 170,000 (estimate)
 
      (Excluding)