Now, if we give you the money that you ask for, can you say to this committee that you will be able to carry out your plans as outlined to us here today? That is what I am interested in-not the money end of it.

General ARNOLD. I have every reason to believe that if this money is given to us by the Congress, we will be able to get the airplanes out, and not only maintain our present production rate but also increase it toward that figure set by the President.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. You realize, General, that now is no ordinary time and you cannot dicker around for bargains, as you could if you had plenty of time and the emergency were not on your heels.

General ARNOLD. While we must be as economical as possible, the time for squabbling over dollars has passed, when it comes to winning the war. And for that reason one airplane that costs maybe a thousand dollars too much is worth twice as much against the enemy as another airplane costing $10,000 less that you cannot get.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. I want to say to you, General, that so far as I am concerned, I am going to go along and give you what money you think is necessary to run this Army. And if you gentlemen are not competent to run it, then we will get somebody who is. General ARNOLD. I agree with you 100 percent, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. General, I want to know, if we turn this money over to you, whether you are going to spend it as economically as you possibly can.

General ARNOLD. I assure you, sir, that is our intent.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. And you are not going to get into the Truman committee with reference to improper expenditures, if you can help it.

General ARNOLD. That is the furthest thing from our thoughts. We believe we can expend this money as economically as you can in time of war. But we will get you the airplanes on the dates which we have predicted.

Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. I am more interested in that statement than I am in saving a few dollars in the cost of an airplane.

METHOD OF LOCATION OF PLANTS AND BASES

General ARNOLD. I want to say, when it comes to the matter of the selection of sites for plants or for bases, we have one procedure that we follow. That is to secure all the information possible that affects such installations and then, as impartially as we can, select the best site.

In the case of bases, we have three boards going over all information before the selection is finally made, so that there can be no question that we have looked out for the best interests of the Government.

CONCENTRATION ON CERTAIN TYPES OF PLANES

Mr. COLLINS. General, there has been some talk to the effect that you people should select three or four types of airplanes that you regard as the better types and concentrate on making them instead of making a number of different types of airplanes. Are you doing that?

General ARNOLD. We have concentrated on individual types whereever the tactical situation will permit us. For instance, our P-40's were operating down in North Africa when the Spitfires and the Hurricanes could not.

There has been a tremendous amount of operation in cold weather on the Russian front.

Mr. TABER. Were they ours?

General ARNOLD. Our winterized ones could operate. That is one reason why we struggled so long to get that proving ground at Fairbanks, Alaska. Now, we have, as far as we could, standardized our types of airplanes. For instance, take a good type of airplane, and the question may be asked, "Why not build that one type?" Some aircraft has a maximum performance at an altitude below 20,000 feet, while some other type has a maximum performance at an altitude above 20,000 feet. I cannot tell whether a German bomber will come in below or above an altitude of 20,000 feet, and we must be prepared for any eventuality. We must have one plane with a maximum performance down low and another with a maximum performance at a higher altitude. You must have another type to go with bombers. You must have three types there.

We must have dive bombers, which have a distinct place in tactical operations. We must have medium bombers and heavy bombers, so that really we would have six different types of planes.

Mr. COLLINS. You do not think it would be possible to standardize the various types of airplanes to a greater extent than has been done before?

General ARNOLD. I do not think so. We have had the British sitting in with us on that, to determine whether we could eliminate certain types.

Mr. TABER. You cannot tell what possibilities along that line may be developed.

General ARNOLD. No, sir.

Mr. WOODRUM. What is the policy now?

General ARNOLD. As fast as one airplane comes into the picture with a performance materially better than another airplane, we taper off production on that other airplane and build the newer type as soon as possible.

Mr. COLLINS. You are getting a great deal more fighting power out of the ships than you did some years ago?

General ARNOLD. There is no comparison at all.

Mr. COLLINS. Have you left off building wooden ships?

General ARNOLD. We were building 10-year airplanes. When we went into the war, we were building 10-year training planes as well as combat planes, the reason being that with the money available we had to have the planes last as long as possible. We had airplanes lasting 8, 9, and 10 years. Since the shortage in aluminum and magnesium made its appearance, we immediately went to plastic and wooden training planes, and now we are looking ahead to see what is the next step we might take to get into the plastic field with perhaps observation planes and transport planes. We see no reason why we should have a 10-year transport plane, and we are already searching the field for a 3-year transport plane.

DEVELOPMENT OF GLIDERS

Mr. COLLINS. What about gliders?

General ARNOLD. We have the best glider man that we could get in the United States. He is solely in charge of gliders, that being his only mission. He is unrestricted, and has free access to me. He can always go ahead.

TRUMAN COMMITTEE REPORT-EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH BY GENERAL ARNOLD

Mr. CASE. General, you said that you did not appear before the Truman committee, but there was a reference made in the report to some statement of yours, from which you say they took a sentence, or quoted a sentence. What was that sentence?

General ARNOLD. That was a statement with reference to the P-40 airplanes. It was from a talk delivered by me at West Point, N. Y., and it was supposed to be off the record and not to be repeated. If they had repeated everything I said, it would not have made any difference, but they did not do that. They took one sentence out of my speech.

Mr. CASE. I wanted to get that in the record, because it would appear from the statement that you did appear before them. However, I think you have covered that pretty well.

General ARNOLD. I think what I read pretty well covered it. That was covered pretty well in what I said in my explanation.

PILOT TRAINING PROGRAM

Mr. CASE. There is one question I would like to ask about the training program: The general understanding is that young pilots are needed. Do you see any value in the proposal to have a training program at colleges and universities for flyers, or a program comparable to that of the R. O. T. C.?

General ARNOLD. I have thought about that a lot, and it has certain advantages if it could be put over. However, at the present time it might have more disadvantages than advantages.

Mr. CASE. What would be the difficulty?

General ARNOLD. In the first place, we have the matter of time. You cannot train a flyer while he is doing anything else. So far as the flyer is concerned, he must work at it so long, and when he gets through at night he has a certain number of hours to his credit, and during the week he has advanced to a certain stage of proficiency. If he is in a university he cannot do that. He will be taking his flying as a secondary consideration..

Mr. CASE. What about their courses in engineering, and so forth? General ARNOLD. Those things help our flyers very much.

Mr. CASE. I understand there is some suggestion of modifying the civil pilots' training program, which might be worked out along the lines of the R. O. T. C.

General ARNOLD. We are still working on that, but they have not gotten very far. Our main effort is to turn out pilots in the minimum of time, and in order to do that they must do flying and nothing else.

67657-42-4

Mr. CASE. Under the contract that the student enters into in the civilian pilot training program, does he agree that he will enlist when his services are required?

General ARNOLD. There was a provision like that put in their contract, and we are getting more of them now than we did before. Comparatively speaking, we do not get many of them. In some ways, however, the C. A. A. has helped us materially. We have gone to them for instructors in our civilian schools, and we have received considerable help from them in that regard. Heretofore we have taken our instructors from our own graduates, but now we have gone to the C. A. A. and obtained as many as we could from them.

Mr. CASE. Do you get much good material for your work from the enlisted men?

General ARNOLD. Our enlisted strength at the present time is close to 300,000, and so far we have not had any trouble to get the numbers we need as they are needed. We are training them at the rate of about a year now, and we expect to build that up to year by next year. It is a combing-out process.

a

Mr. CASE. What method do you pursue in this combing-out process? Once in awhile I get a letter from a young man in the Army asking for a letter of recommendation, and you indicated that there was a combing process followed.

General ARNOLD. We put all of these young men through the sieve before we put them in the training system. In the case of enlisted men, we call it a trade test; and in the case of a flying cadet, there is an examination. We eliminate those who are obviously not suited for this particular job.

Mr. CASE. Have you lowered the educational requirements?

General ARNOLD. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOODRUM. What are your present requirements?

General ARNOLD. We have a test that we put them through that insures us that they have the necessary proficiency and ability to comprehend subjects with which they will be confronted in training.

Mr. WOODRUM. He must have gone to college, however.

General ARNOLD. No, sir. What I am trying to say is that a man who has had 2 years in a dental clinic has had 2 years at college, but he cannot necessarily meet our requirements. On the other hand, some other man has gone to a night school and has the background, enabling him to meet our requirements.

Mr. WOODRUM. What are the ages?

General ARNOLD. We have dropped the age limit down to 18. Mr. WOODRUM. What is the top age?

General ARNOLD. I think that is still 26.

Mr. WOODRUM. I have had a great many inquiries from civilian pilots, or men who have private pilots' licenses, but with, perhaps, not enough college training to go through that channel. I had a young man to come up here the other day with a pilot's license. He had passed the physical examination and had 150 hours of flying to his credit; yet he could not even get an application blank. General ARNOLD. We have changed that now.

Mr. WOODRUM. It seems to me that you would want to get pilots who can actually operate planes.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any publications or literature explaining that situation?

General ARNOLD. I do not know whether the new system is in print now or not. We are undergoing that change now. We have a statement of the requirements, and we can send that to you.

AVIATION CADET REQUIREMENTS REVISED

Revision of aviation cadet requirements for bombardiers, navigators, and pilots in the Army Air Corps through reduction of the age limit to 18 years, institution of a uniform simplified test in place of the previously required written examination or college credits, and extension of eligibility to married men was announced today by the War Department.

In the past application for aviation cadet training was limited to men between 20 and 26 years of age. The new age limits provide for the acceptance of men between the ages of 18 and 26, inclusive. This applies not only to air-crew members, as bombardiers, navigators, and pilots are designated, but also to Air Corps ground officers, who, as aviation cadets, receive instruction in armament, engineering, communications, photography, and meterology.

A revision already in effect in the extension of eligibility to married men. Heretofore only unmarried men have been given training as aviation cadets, but under the change authorized a married man is eligible providing he submits, along with his application for enlistment, a written statement that his dependents have adequate means of support. This revision applies equally to candidates for air-crew training and for training in the ground courses.

The new "screening test" authorized will be given to all applicants for aircrew training as bombardiers, navigators, and pilots. There will be no exemptions because of college credits earned. The test, in which the applicant will choose the correct answer from five possible answers given for each question, is designed to determine the applicant's fitness to pursue successfully the courses of instruction in Air Corps training schools.

Through the wide revisions in requirements approximately 2,000,000 more men become eligible for enlistment in the Army Air Corps.

Enlistment for such training is open to civilians and to the personnel of any component of the Army. An applicant must be in excellent health and have been a citizen of the United States for at least the 10-year period immediately preceding enlistment.

Immediate enlistment and appointment as an aviation cadet is possible under a revision of procedure and the establishment of an increased number of cadet examining boards in each of the nine corps areas in the Nation. Application for information may be made to any United States Army recruiting station, to any corps area headquarters, or to the adjutant of any Army post or organization.

An applicant will be directed to the nearest cadet examining board, to which he should take three letters of recommendation signed by citizens of established standing in his community and a birth certificate or other documentary evidence of date of birth.

He will be given a physical examination similar to that given to Reserve officers called to active duty, except that as a prospective flying officer he will be required to have 20/20 eyesight and normal color perception. He will be given the simplified screening test and examined by the board in formal proceedings for the purpose of determining whether he possesses the required moral and character qualifications.

Whether or not the applicant has passed will be determined immediately by the cadet examining board, and, if successful, the applicant will be enlisted at once, appointed an aviation cadet, and sent to one of the three Air Corps replacement training centers. There he will be given a physical examination for flying duty and further tests to determine the type of training he is to receive. Under the old qualifications, which have been revised in order to facilitate procurement of the thousands of flyers necessary to meet wartime requirements, applicants for air-crew training were required to take an Air Corps written examination or to have had 2 years of college. These requirements are no longer in effect, and the simplified test now ready for operation is open to any qualified man regardless of formal education.

The new tests do not emphasize detailed academic knowledge or studies but are concerned with an applicant's proficiency and ability to comprehend subjects with which he will be confronted in the training texts and manuals.

of the test is designed to determine the applicant's mechanical comprehension