JUNE 5 JUNE 15 JULY 7 Se BANGKOK JULY 23 Rtrarocrulser Is Newest Boeing Design Triumph Continuing its development of com- mercial aircraft and setting up a defi- nite pattern for postwar operations, the Boeing company this week announced highly successful flight tests for a new giant of the skies, the military version of a four-engined double-deck luxury transport to be known as the Stratocruiser. Growing out of the now famed Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the prototype of the Stratocruiser is the first of the larger size super-transports of the future to have actually been built and flown by any company. The military transport version has already undergone extensive tests in Seattle. ‘It has better flying characteristics than any other airplane we have ever built, even better than the B-29 Super- fortress which is noted for its superior flying qualities,’ declared Wellwood E. Beall, Boeing vice president in charge of engineering. Cruising Speed 340 mph To be powered for airline use by four 3,500 horsepower engines, the largest ever built, the Stratocruiser will have a top speed of 400 miles an hour and cruising speed of 340. Operating range will be 3,500 miles with ample fuel reserves. With its two-deck, three-cabin fuse- lage, the giant plane can be operated as a high-speed, low-fare day coach of the air carrying 100 passengers; as a luxury sleeper carrying 72 days passengers or 36 in births, with a 14-chair observa- tion lounge and ample cargo and bag- gage space for the great distances of See ee Page 8 “‘Wish We Had More,” Says General Arnold “T only wish we had more of them,” wrote Gen. H. H. Arnold in a letter this week commenting on the excellent per- formance of Boeing B-29 Superfortresses in action against Japan. “As you undoubtedly noted in the papers,” said the commanding general of the Army Air Forces, “all of the B-29’s we have in combat have been very busy lately.” General Arnold again let it be known that he is following closely the outstand- ing record being set up by the “Gen. H. H. Arnold Special,” Wichita-built bomber which the AAF commander picked out as his own ship while on a visit here last January. Further news of the “Special” was received this week in a dispatch from XX Bomber Command released direct to oT ASN Fae AeAIG Cee hts told se nOWee athe “Special” had been saved from almost certain disaster recently by the courage See GENERAL ARNOLD, age 8 New. besury Bole! s AUG. 10 AUG. 10 AUG. 20 SEPT. 8 SEPT. 26 OCT. 14 OCT. 16 OCT. 17 OCT. 25 NOV.3 NOY. 5 NOV. 5, FERS RRRRO SDR OGE ~ Boeing Plane Talk NOV. 11 NOY. 11 NOV. 17, 1944 NO. 15 This issue of PLANE TALK is for you, the men and women of Boeing-Wichita now serving in the Armed Forces. It is published at this time so that those of you who are overseas will receive it by Christmas Day. We thought you would prefer to have it rather than the con- ventional Christmas card, so this greeting comes to you with the best wishes of all of us — the men and women with whom you used to work. A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE Daily news reports graphically tell us what you are doing — no one could ask for more. Here at home, we are striving to keep faith with you by our record of hard work and production. Our one objective is to give you the safest and best equipment we know how to build, to give it to you in the numbers needed, and when needed. As former employees of Boeing-Wichita, you will be interested to know that we have maintained and even exceeded the heavy production schedules assigned us. Your old place of work has been bearing the brunt of B-29 production and has delivered the overwhelming majority of the Superfortresses which are today rain- ing destruction on Japan. Though the primary trainer program is decelerating rapidly, over ten thousand Boeing Kaydets have now been delivered. The men and women you left behind have established one of the nation’s finest records for attendance at work, have led the way in war bond drives and campaigns for the Red Cross and War Fund. They are working long hours at jobs that are not easy. Our hands are full keeping up the uninterrupted production of the B-29's so Christmas Edition for Former Employees i in the Armed Forces urgently needed in the Pacific. finish the job. warmest Christmas greetings. quickly as possible. at home. We mean to stay on the job — and Thai's the way we expeci to keep fuiih wiin you. On behalf of all of us here at the plants, | extend to you our Wherever you are, you can be sure that we are thinking of you and to the best of our ability, we are working to help attain the goal set for all of us: May God grant our fervent wish and prayer that next year we all can enjoy Christmas in the traditional American way — here Sincerely, To win the war as tee 0.9) TO WORK THANKSGIVING Because of the urgency of the B-29 program, Thanksgiving Day, Novem- ber 23, will be observed as a regular work day at Boeing-Wichita, in accordance with War Department policy. A former employee of Shop 60, Pfe. John D. Parker, member of a B-29 aircraft maintenance unit, is slated for overseas duty soon. “You make them,” he tells his former associates, “and we’ll ee them pee 44 tnee Bt ihe Airsrays \ THE STRATOCRUISER, GIANT SUPER-TRANSPORT designed to carry 72 to 100 passengers at high speed and minimum operating costs, is the plane Boeing will produce for commercial airline use after the war. The military version already has undergone highly successful flight tests Recap of Raids Shows B-29 Too Tough for Japs With a score of bombing missions already accomplished, Wichita-built Boeing B-29’s are carrying out in a relentless manner the Army’s master plan for the systematic destruction of Japan’s ability to wage war. The plan was designed for the Super- fortress; the Superfortress was designed for the plan. Every B-29 reaching out for distant Jap targets in the initial raids was produced at Boeing-Wichita, and a predominant majority of planes taking part in the ensuing offensives came from the same place. Steel works, oil refineries, naval installations, and now war production plants themselves —all have felt the smashing power of the Boeing Super- fortresses. These raids are being car- ried out over a great are extending from Manchuria in the north, across the Japanese home islands, down through the Malayan peninsula, and on to Sumatra. Regardless of its location, there is little territory now heid by Japan which is safe from the vengeance of the mighty B-29—and its brave crews. First Raid on June 15 It was a thrill beyond description when word was flashed to Wichita and the Boeing plants that planes built here had carried out the first land-based bombing attack against the Japanese home islands, June 15. It was the news for which everyone had been waiting. Every Boeing employee and every former Boe- ing employee had a part in that raid through the companionship he felt for each B-29 crew as a result of a rivet See RECAP OF RAIDS, Page 8 BOEING WAC AT PRESQUE iSLE One of Boeing-Wichita’s service women, Pvt. Dorothy McEntire, who left Shop 330 in June, 1944 to join the WACs, was recently transferred to Presque Isle, Me. After her basic train- ing at Ft. Des Moines, Ia., she was stationed at Grenier Field, N. H. Returning Veterans Are Offered Individual Assistance Through Company Program Sixty-five former Boeing employees who have been honorably discharged from the armed forces are back at work helping turn out Superfortresses to speed the return home of their buddies. They are joined by 597 other veterans of World War II to make a total of 662 service men now working at Boeing-Wichita. They are employed in more than a score of different departments and shops. Some are men who have been wounded in action, some are disabled to an extent that it is necessary to be placed on jobs where they learn an entirely different trade from that which they followed before the war. But all are making good in offices and shops and on the produc- tion line. Because of the particular problems of returning servicemen, individual con- sideration is given every veteran of World War II who applies for a job at Boeing, in addition to the service and facilities already established for all employees. The program is under the supervision of men who are themselves veterans of World Wars I and II and thoroughly familiar with the problems of men who have served in uniform. The program for veterans includes employment counsel and assistance for those who want to take advantage of the educational provisions extended through the “GI Bill of Rights.” Veterans who were former employees and have been rehired may take advant- age of further specialized training offered by the government with no loss of seniority while they are away. After completion of this training they will be given preference for re-employment at their old jobs or other available open- ings for which they are qualified. BACK AT BOEING after two years in the South Pacific, R. W. Miller picks up where he left off when he joined the AAF in 1942. There are now 662 World War II veterans at Boeing-Wichita the vaidon Vaweta Jast