Speedup

After weeks of conflicting reports on the relative strength of U.S. and Russian air power (TIME, May 30), Air Force Secretary Harold E. Talbott announced last week a 35% acceleration in production schedules for Boeing's 600-m.p.h. B-52 bomber. This would give the U.S. eleven heavy jet-bomber groups (500 planes in all) by 1958 instead of 1959.

Boeing, which has already built some 30 of the giant planes, and is turning them out at the rate of one a week, will speed up production at both its Seattle and Wichita, Kans. plants. Originally, Boeing had planned to roll the first B-52 out of Wichita early next year, build up to a rate of 2 1/2 planes a week. Now it will get Wichita in high gear sooner, and build up to about 3 _1/3 planes every week. Even so, it will still be months before the speedup shows in the number of B-52s in service because of the inevitable lead-time between order and delivery on everything from raw materials to electronic equipment. Said a Boeing engineer: "A lot of heavy forgings go into a B-52, and forging presses still aren't a dime a dozen."

By week's end, Washington buzzed with reports of a speedup in production of Boeing's four-jet KC-135 tanker and a pair of new supersonic fighters, McDonnell's F101 and Lockheed's 1,000-m.p.h. F-104, still in the test-flying stage. For the B-52 program alone, the acceleration would probably increase the Air Force budget for fiscal 1955-56 somewhere between $300 and $400 million.

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