(2 of 2)
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.