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Pratt & Whitney has already made big gains in solving the problem.lt has worked out high-alloy mixes which eliminate the use of columbium completely in the J-48. It has also reduced the use of other critical metals to a mere fraction of a pound per engine. Others have developed substitutes which permit existing supplies of the critical metals to be stretched 15 times farther.
But the production race is still far from won. And no airman thinks the U.S. has the lead it needs in the jet-engine race for air supremacy. But all airmen think it will have to get it—and keep it—to survive. Says Fred Rentschler: "There is no such thing as a second best air force. There is the best, or nothing."
* Also in Fred Rentschler's class ('09): Judge Harold Medina, Samuel (Captain from Castile) Shellabarger, Publisher Wilfred J. Funk and onetime Assistant Secretary of State Norman Armour.
* Two of the brothers did well elsewhere. Gordon was chairman of Manhattan's National City Bank at his death in 1948. George, now 58, runs the family plant and is chairman of Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp.