But serious negotiations were under way with representatives of America’s mighty motor vehicles industry to arrange for a dramatic increase in aircraft and aero-engine capacity and, as of March 1940, Britain and France had agreed a joint programme of orders.29 This was deliberately designed to permit the Europeans to stretch their foreign reserves over many years if necessary. But by the summer of 1940 they had orders in hand for more than 10,000 military aircraft to be delivered by the end of 1941, the equivalent of an entire year of German production.
