During Chicago's International Air Show, the Assistant Secretary of War, thin-haired, pipe-smoking Colonel Louis Arthur Johnson, puffed out a big boast: "No matter what anyone may say, the United States is supreme today in airplanes—supreme in quality and in numbers." Colonel Johnson declared "the numbers stand about as follows: U. S. (on hand and under construction) 16,000; France 11,000; Russia 10,000; Great Britain 9,000; Germany 8,000; Italy 7,000; Japan 7,000." Listeners knew he must be including every last U. S. airplane, from flivver to biggest Army bomber. They knew also that most airplane...
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