When U. S. defense preparations began last summer, the aircraft industry jumped almost directly from swaddling clothes into ill-fitting long pants, quivered before the big bad wolf of mass production. Defense Commissioner William S. Knudsen was patient. As aircraft manufacturers hacked away by hand at their $2,500,000,000-plus backlog, he quickly allayed the fear that their industry would be moved to Detroit, but at the same time he made eyes at his mass-producing auto friends (TIME, Oct. 7). Neither planemakers nor automen enjoyed this coquetry.
Last week big Bill Knudsen spoke. To 69 automotive bigwigs gathered in Detroit he outlined the...
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