AVIATION: Through the Sonic Barrier

On the flat land of Edwards Air Force Base in California, a cluster of scientists and Air Force brass watched a silvery, swept-wing jet fighter roar down the runway and into the air for a test flight. It climbed high in the air, then leveled off and shot across the air base with a roar like a thunderclap. This week Long Island’s Republic Aviation Corp. proudly announced the results of the flight: its XF-91, powered by a General Electric J47 turbojet and a Reaction Motors rocket engine, had become the first U.S. combat plane to fly through the sound barrier in level flight. (Other supersonic planes, e.g., the Bell X-1 and the Douglas Skyrocket, are experimental speedsters faster than Republic’s XF-91 but not designed for battle.) The XF-91 had performed the trick with an extra push from its rocket motor.

Republic made other news last week. It delivered to the Air Force its first production model of the F-84F Thunderstreak, a swept-wing version of the F-84 Thunderjet, the top fighter-bomber in Korea and a mainstay of the NATO air force. Capable of 700 m.p.h., the new Thunderstreak is powered by Britain’s Sapphire engine, made in the U.S. by Curtiss-Wright (TIME, Oct. 16, 1950). It can carry a small atom bomb, has a range of more than 2,000 miles (considerably more than the current Thunder jet), and can be refueled in flight for still greater distances.

Flying High. The two new planes were the latest evidence that Republic, which went into a dive after the war, was flying high again. Both the development of the planes and Republic’s present place as one of the top six U.S. planemakers are due to calculated gambles by President Mundy Ingalls Peale, 46. Peale started out as a stock salesman, but soon saw that aviation was the industry of the future. He went to work for United Aircraft, and learned the business from the ground up—piloting, production and sales. He joined Republic in 1939, became its president at 40 after a notable wartime production career.

Under Ralph Damon, now president of T.W.A., and the late Alfred Marchev, Republic racked up an impressive wartime record by turning out more than 15,000 P47 Thunderbolts. Mundy Peale’s part in that program was managing Republic’s Evansville, Ind. plant, which turned out more than 6,000 P-47s. But when Peale was made Republic president in early 1947, he faced problems galore.

The company had an order for 100 Thunderjets, its first jet fighter, but it was losing money on the Seabee (TIME, Sept. 17, 1945), a small private amphibian, and was $7,000,000 in the red. To make matters worse, American Airlines and Pan American Airways canceled orders for the four-engine Rainbow transport, the only transport orders Republic had. Then Peale took his first gamble; he decided to junk the Seabee program, stop trying for civilian orders, and stake Republic’s future on Government contracts.

He landed more orders for the Thunder jet, and poured $1,000,000 into developing the prototype of the F-84F Thunderstreak. He landed a contract for the Thunderstreak, but by the time Air Force requirements were met, the plane was much heavier and needed a more powerful engine. Peale, on a trip to Britain’s Farnborough Air Show, saw Armstrong Siddeley’s Sapphire and decided it was the engine he needed. He suggested to Curtiss-Wright that it get the rights, and Curtiss-Wright signed up to make the British engine in the U.S.

$100 Million Bet. When the Korean war started, Peale tried a much bigger gamble. Republic production was down to ten planes a month, employment to 5,000 (from a wartime peak of 25,000). But knowing that new orders were sure to come in, Peale canceled vacations, started hiring men at the rate of 100 a day, and told his purchasing department to make out orders for $100 million worth of materials and equipment—all before Republic had got so much as a letter of intent for new planes. When the orders came through a few weeks later, Republic was ready. In all, it has delivered more than 3,000 Thunderjets to the Air Force and eight NATO nations, is now turning out ten planes a day. In the first nine months of 1952, Republic grossed $215 million for a net of $4,000,000; it still has a backlog of $1 billion.

Like other planemakers, Peale thinks it is time to eliminate the feasts & famines that have plagued the aircraft industry in the past. Says he: “The cost of starting up production is four times that of keeping it going in a small way.” Peale therefore hopes that the Air Force will adopt a proposed plan to let planemakers maintain their planes after they have been delivered to the Air Force, thus keep a nucleus of workers after rearmament orders taper off. Such action, says Peale, will not only keep the industry’s wheels turning but will, in the long run, provide a bigger Air Force for fewer dollars.