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Show Faster Than Sound To Lt. Col. Cass S. Hough of Plymouth, Plym-outh, Mich., fell the rare distinction of traveling faster than sound, or more than TSO miles per hour, ichile undertaking under-taking two experimental flights for the V. S. army air force. Last September, Col. Hough's P-38 Lightning climbed up to 43,000 feet. Then, he cooly nosed the plane into a powerdive and she zoomed downward at the record speed before being leveled off at 18,000 feet. Last February, Col. Hough took a P-47 Thunderbolt to 39,000 feet, and repeated the previous performance. According to the 36-year-old daredevil, dare-devil, he made his first flight on impulse. im-pulse. As his plane went screaming downward, he said, it felt as though a ton of bricks lay on his back, and he could barely lift his arms to write down the recordings of his instruments. W hen he leveled off at 18,000, everything went gray, he declared, but he never lost consciousness. FARM LAND: Value Rising With the value of all farm land now above World War I level, government gov-ernment officials were becoming anxious over the possibility of another an-other realty boom which would collapse col-lapse with a disastrous drop in prices as in the twenties. Between March and July of this year, farm real estate rose another 3 per cent. The increase oecurred throughout all of the geographical regions and in two-thirds of the states. In Indiana, farm property sold 40 per cent above the 1935-39 average. With commodity prices up one-fourth one-fourth within the last 12 months and farm income for 1943 expected to exceed 1942's record levels, farmers were said to be active buyers in the market. What with high commodity prices prevailing, speculators also i were supposed to be purchasing ( property for resale. 1 WAR ARSENAL: 80 Pet. Complete Of the government's planned construction con-struction of UVt billion dollars of war plant facilities, facili-ties, approximately approximate-ly 12 billion dollars dol-lars has been completed, Chairman Chair-man Donald Nelson Nel-son of the War Production board announced. That represents a completion com-pletion of 80 per cent of the program pro-gram compared Donald Nelson with 61 per cent at the start of the year and 34 per cent at this time last summer. Greatest gains in the program were in the construction of plants for guns, combat vehicles, aircraft and ammunition. Facilities for producing pro-ducing ammunition are 95 per cent complete. According to Nelson, the records for other programs showed synthetic rubber, 61 per cent finished; 100 octane oc-tane gas, 39 per cent; iron and steel, 75 per cent, and chemical products 90 per cent. Production Lags Production of armaments and other oth-er goods needed by the army is lagging lag-ging seriously, Lieut. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, chief of army supply services, warned. He said that 300 million dollars' worth of supplies have not been delivered according to schedule in the last three months. Output of factories has been going down steadily, he continued, with July figures "decidedly worse" than those of June. At the same time the treasury reported re-ported that actual war spending during dur-ing July was half a billion dollars less than in June, this being the first month in which war costs have turned downward. Commentators say this decline is another indication indica-tion of lower production, rather than smaller needs. Urging all contractors to fulfill their contracts, General Somervell said: "If as a manufacturer, you are scheduled to produce a certain quantity of war material by a specific spe-cific date, you have undertaken a specific military obligation." CARGO PLANES: Back to Metal New developments prompted the army's cancellation of contracts for all wooden transport airplanes and the return to metallic construction. The wooden craft were designed to operate from small unimproved landing fields and carry 4,500 pounds of cargo at medium range. But partly because of Allied air dominance, domi-nance, good airports have been put in use in distant combat zones, and the demand has shifted to faster, longer-range planes. Furthermore, it was reported, aluminum production has increased in a volume sufficient to take care of additional plane building, while certain woods suitable for the type of transport designed are growing scarce. GAS' Production of gasoline and other petroleum derivatives can be increased in-creased by recovering oil now left in wells, and by processing natural gas, oil sands and shales, Dr. Gustav Egloff, renowned scientist, told a joint congressional committee. He urged governmental aid in developing de-veloping synthetic gasoline methods, but added that he did not think that making gasoline from coal was advisable ad-visable immediately. He said that eight million men would be needed to manufacture a year's supply. |