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Navy Planes. In naval aviation, a field where the top Navy men of all nations have been sound asleep, the U.S. is a long way out in front. Grumman's famed Wildcat fighters are the best carrier craft in the world, will soon have to fight for their title with another U.S. product: Vought-Sikorsky's gull-winged Corsair. Grumman's new torpedo-plane Avenger has no equal in foreign services. Consolidated's Catalinas have piled up an unequaled record for reliable scouting. And bigger and faster flying boats are coming: Consolidated's four-engined Coronado, Martin's gargantuan Mars.
So indeed are many others, some still on the drawing boards, some already under construction, some to be faster than anything now in the air, some to fly higher. There is no one-plane answer to the question: Which is the best airplane? Which was the best automobile: the car that ran 150 m.p.h. on the Indianapolis speedway, the one that hauled coal, or the one that took the family to the beach on Sunday? As the U.S. design and production machine is geared up, each U.S. plane should be the best in its class—and within only a few months.