<text id=00he0504><title>Spur to Large-Scale Production</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Spur to Large-Scale Production</hdr><body>
<p>The importance of these orders can't be overstated. They arrived at a time when industry was about to start layoffs for lack of major contracts, and they increased the employment instead. They spurred factory management into thinking in terms of large-scale production to meet increased needs. They were the direct reason for the development of high-rate production tooling and for increased training of employees in new processes and production techniques. Finally, they had a very positive psychological value; if somebody wants to buy your products, those products are perceived as excellent.
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<p>When war broke out in 1939, the United States had to follow the letter of the law in its own Neutrality Act. Deliveries to France and Great Britain dropped substantially, because they now were belligerent powers and as such were disqualified from buying arms in the United States.
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<p>Congress then changed the law to permit belligerents to buy. In November 1939, the 'cash-and-carry- legislation was interpreted to mean that belligerents could buy, pay cash and move the goods in their own ships. Within a month, France and Great Britain had ordered 2,500 military aircraft. Industry's backlog at the end of 1939 was $630 million, of which $400 million represented foreign sales. By March 1940, British and French orders alone accounted for 8,200 aircraft in progress. By mid-year, the two countries were receiving 70 per cent of the output of military engines from Wright and P&W.
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<p>Clearly this was a problem. On the one hand, foreign sales were paying for the growth as well as the products of American industry. On the other hand, those very products were urgently needed by the American forces themselves, for their own rearmament. After the fall of France, Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain, policy decisions were made at high levels of government. The immediate need to help Britain defend itself was more important than the need to build American forces.
