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68 so u R c e s o f we a p o n sy s T e m s In n o v a T Io n In T h e depaR TmenT o f defense
specifications and standards; testing and evaluation of aircraft production
models; improvement of engines, fuels, armament, airframes, and other critical
materials; aeromedicine; and the management and coordination of research
contracts with private industry. Longer-term fundamental studies in such fields
as aerodynamics were typically carried out in academic institutions and in the
government research laboratories operated by the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics and the National Bureau of Standards. 3 But many technological
innovations had also originated in the private sector and not in governmentowned
manufacturing facilities of the type that had historically turned out new
weapons for the Army and the Navy. Without a similar institutional legacy of
its own, the Air Force relied more heavily on the domestic aircraft industry to
design, build, and equip the next generation of aerial weapons. Consequently,
the Air Force’s in-house R&D operations, which did undergo a major expansion
after 1945, focused primarily, but not exclusively, on the testing, evaluation,
and improvement of aircraft and other weapon systems produced by industrial
contractors rather than on the accumulation of the requisite knowledge needed
to develop those technologies internally.
The origins of military aviation in the United States can be traced back to
1907, four years after the Wright Brothers successfully demonstrated powered,
heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Initially, modern aircraft
were expected to be of direct benefit to military reconnaissance and observation
during field operations, which prompted the Army leadership to establish a
separate Aeronautical Division in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. 4 At the
end of World War I, the War Department transferred the expanding aviation
arm out of the Signal Corps and granted it independent status as the Army
Air Service. In 1926, the Air Service became the Army Air Corps and then,
in 1941, the Army Air Forces (AAF). Throughout this period, the Army’s air
arm continued to develop and improve its tactical pursuit, close air support, and
strategic bombing functions, all of which dated back to World War I. Employed
with devastating effects during World War II, strategic bombing became
increasingly important as the Air Force adopted offensive nuclear capabilities in
the early years of the Cold War. 5 Moreover, the advent of nuclear weapons, jet
propulsion, and guided missiles prompted the leaders of the Army Air Forces
to confront the seemingly intractable problem of how to achieve technological
superiority at a time when aircraft production took precedence to achieve
maximum effectiveness against military targets in Germany and Japan. Even
before the war ended, however, disagreement within the Army’s senior ranks
3 Lawrence R. Benson, Acquisition Management in the United States Air Force and Its Predecessors
(Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997), 7.
4 Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose: Developing Air Power for the United States Air Force During the
First Century of Powered Flight (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Oh.: Air Force History and Museums
Program, 2002), 199–200.
5 On the Army Air Corps before and during World War II, see Maurer Maurer, Aviation in the U.S.
Army, 1919–1939 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1987); Bernard C. Nalty, ed., Winged
Shield, Winged Sword: A History of the United States Air Force, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and
Museums Program, 1997), chaps. 1–3, 6–10; and Edgar F. Raines Jr., Eyes of Artillery: The Origins of Modern
U.S. Army Aviation in World War II (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2000).