[cantrevealname]

> There was no shortage of TiO₂ in the US.

But the article says that the US lacked the ore:

“Back when they were building the airplane the United States didn’t have the ore supplies – an ore called rutile ore. It’s a very sandy soil and it’s only found in very few parts of the world.”

Also, the Wikipedia link above doesn’t show the US to be major producer. It does show ex-Soviet block countries to be major producers.

I mean, you might be right about importing the metal rather than ore. I’m commenting only about whether the ore is widely available in the US.

[CraigRo]

There's plenty of titanium in the us. They opened a mine in the Adirondacks just for this purpose in WW2, and there's tons of untapped ore. Chances are that it was cheaper to get from the USSR than to make it ourselves