This WWII-era magazine advertisement shamelessly promotes the significant contributions to the war effort made by the Curtiss-Wright aviation company. “Since the war, Curtiss-Wright has made the greatest single contribution to our numerical strength in the air.” Possibly, by the total number of engines, but competitors like Douglas and North American Aviation created far more planes than the total number of P-40s, C-46s, and Helldivers (although these all played vital roles). The map accompanying the ad uses a distorted projection to attempt to better represent distances by air. The accuracy is suspect. Roundels scattered across the globe represent important air installations for the Allies, including Peru and Turkey. It’s worth noting that, in 1943, the Wright Aeronautical Corporation (a Curtiss-Wright subsidiary) was investigated by the Truman Committee for producing defective aircraft engines. The Senate investigation concluded that the company, desperate to meet production quotas, knowingly allowed engines with faulty parts to be installed in military aircraft at the plant in Lockland, Ohio. This facility appears to be marked with a USAAF star on the map.
