Wartime Aviation Production
In May 1939, with the outbreak of World War II imminent, Clapp was seconded by then Prime Minister Robert Menzies to become general manager of the Aircraft Construction Branch of the Commonwealth Department of Supply and Development, overseeing the construction of Bristol Beaufort bombers in Australia. He was made chairman of the new Aircraft Production Commission in March next year.
Although Beaufort bombers were advanced aluminium aircraft requiring complex and previously untried assembly processes, the first flew as early as August 1941. During 1942 they were delivered at the rate of sixteen per month and in 1943 at 29 per month. The last of 700 was delivered in August 1944, by which time production had shifted to Beaufighter fighter-bomber, of which 364 were completed by the end of the war.
Clapp was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1941 New Year Honours "or public services in the Commonwealth of Australia."
Read more about this topic: Harold Winthrop Clapp
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