Don't rush into turbines!
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THE INADVISABILITY of tooling-up for the mass production of existing designs of gas turbine pending further advances in its development was mentioned in a recent statement ,to the United States Senate judiciary sub-committee on antitrust and monopoly by Mr. George J. Huebner, Jnr., of the Chrysler Corporation. Mr. Huebner is Chrysler director of research, product planning and development staff.
"If it were decided to freeze design and development of current turbines," Mr. Huebner said in his statement, "and then tool for mass production it would have to be with the full understanding that we had only partially achieved our goals and that such an interim engine could, in the highly competitive automotive industry, be superseded by a significantly more advanced turbine powerplant within three to five years.
"Most of the tooling for the original turbine engine could not be used to build a more desirable powerplant. Thus, a premature decision to mass produce a turbine could actually retard desirable technical development for many years."
Mr. Huebner referred to the work of competitors in the gas-turbine industry.