Two articles from the January 1945 Spalding Sportsman and one from the Springfield Republic clipped by Paul Garber.

Hit A Kite -- Bag A Plane

Even kites have a place in the war effort.

They are being used by the armed forces in the training of men for combat duty. Our firm recently completed a contract for Navy Target kites at our Chicopee plant and now that the work has been done, The Sportsman is permitted to say something about the kite.

These kites, which fly without a tail can be manipulated through specially designed reels from the ground or deck of a ship to hover, loop, dive, make the figure "S" or duplicate any other maneuver of an airplane. A high degree of skill and accuracy is required to shoot down this kite and many a gunner, who has enemy ships to his credit learned how to bring them down through practice with this kite.

The Navy target kite was designed and developed by Lt. Comdr. Paul E. Garber of the Special Devices Division, Navy Department, Bureau of Aeronautics and was first produced a year ago. Its production by our firm has been under the direction of R.F. Wheeler and J.N. Tynan.

Although youngsters would be fascinated by the kite, its pull is so powerful that a boy could not keep his feet on the ground in flying it.

Below is W.T. Brown, our vice president, with a Navy Kite.

From This To This

Although we are still manufacturing a limited amount of sporting goods such as are shown above, for the use of men in the armed forces throughout the world, our main efforts now are being concentrated on weapons of war such as the second photograph shows. Among other things we are making 20mm projectiles, parts for the Browning automatic rifle, lifting plugs for big caliber shells, airplane de-icers, electronic parts and target kites.

Our future lies in the happier task of producing goods for the recreation of a peaceful America.


And from the Springfield Republic, Dec. 2, 1944: