Science: Electricity from Plane Engines

Like the oldtime housewife who used to hitch the cradle to her rocking chair, letting the motion of the chair rock the baby, U.S. airplane motormakers last week were harnessing airplane engines to generators—thus just about licking the serious wartime shortage in electricity. One Midwest motor plant is generating several million kilowatt hours a month, more than half the power needed to run the plant at capacity.

Airplane engines (unlike automobile engines) are not broken in by actual use, but must furnish maximum power at the first takeoff. This means that airplane engines...

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