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Show U. S. Planes Get Nursemaid Care Garages on Wheels Go to Front Airdromes to Make Repairs. REPAIR BASE IN NORTH AFRICA. AF-RICA. Warplanes of the United States army air forces are receiving -ursemaid care via assembly-line methods on our widespread fighting fronts, thanks to "garages" on wheels. Large trailers, half the size of Pullman Pull-man cars, compactly equipped and staffed by skilled technicians of the air service command, these mobile mo-bile units are able to barge right up to a forward airdrome and perform per-form repairs ranging from a "skin-grafting" "skin-grafting" job for a flak-riddled aircraft air-craft to overhauling of delicate instruments. in-struments. Step Up Power Conceived with a view toward mobility mo-bility and designed as self-contained units, the trailers have gone a long way toward stepping up the striking power of our air force by increasing the number of operational aircraft ready to sweep the" skies. Mass-prepared as only America can do it, these repair units have taken to the front. With compact efficiency they are creating steady flows of repaired aircraft to hound the enemy. The normal entourage of every service squadron of the 12th air force air service command is from three to six trailers, each especially equipped for the work at hand. One houses a machine shop that would do justice jus-tice to any large business firm whose job it is to perform machine ma-chine repairs. A second is an instrument in-strument whose staff is made up of soldiers possessed of watchmaking skill, while a third may deal with our intricate gunsights, the mechanism mech-anism of which appears to be a combination com-bination of a Walt Disney dream and a Rube Goldberg nightmare. The fourth trailer is devoted to electrical repairs and houses the radio shop, and the others are supply vans that contain the hundreds of odds and ends that a mechanic may need in the repair of a battle-damaged airplane. air-plane. Operate as Team. Traveling and operating as a well-drilled well-drilled team of mechanical work houses, the mobile repair units stand s!de by side to produce the effect of an assembly line belt down which damaged parts move with amazing speed to emerge completely whole for sorely needed grounded aircraft. To obtain an idea of the versatility of one of these trailers, take into consideration that a modern heavy bomber contains more than 100 instruments, in-struments, about 50 of which are altogether different from each other. But that is no stumbling block to the instrument shop. It is equipped with tools and gadgets and skilled craftsmen able to repair and overhaul over-haul any or all of these delicately constructed instruments. The scarcity born of long supply lines and heavy fighting has bred an ingenuity and a flair for invention that does the American tradition proud. Much of the repair equipment and many of the delicate tools are homegrown home-grown and home - manufactured. Most amazing of all, the mechanics who tear down, build up and actu-j actu-j ally manufacture necessary tiny i parts, are not experts stolen by the army from great American chronometer chronom-eter and instrument factories. They are farm lads and clothing salesmen, sales-men, whose schooling in their present pres-ent work was done entirely by Uncle Sam. |