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ReseaRch a n d developmenT In T h e aIR fo R c e 73 from the institutional remnants of the wartime R&D program in the Army Air Forces. But the transition to an independent R&D establishment—ARDC— was gradual. Any explanation of its origins and evolution must begin with a brief discussion of prior institutional developments and technological advances in Army aviation dating back to the end of World War I. In October 1917, ten years after it had institutionalized aerial operations in the Aeronautical Division, the Army Signal Corps established the Airplane Engineering Department at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, to conduct experimental investigations in support of aircraft development and procurement. Army engineers at McCook built upon and applied the knowledge created in other laboratories—such as the National Bureau of Standards and the new research facilities operated by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—to test airframes, engines, and other critical components; develop aircraft specifications; and improve materials. At the end of World War I, the War Department assumed control of the aviation functions previously assigned to the Signal Corps and consolidated them into the new Army Air Service. Under this sweeping administrative reorganization, the Airplane Engineering Department at McCook Field became the Airplane Engineering Division. Although the new division maintained elaborate chemical, metallurgical, and electrical laboratories, the content of the work undertaken in these and other facilities remained essentially the same—to support the development of aircraft produced in industry. In 1926, Congress passed the Air Corps Act, which mandated a five-year aviation expansion program for the Army Air Service. The newly named Army Air Corps consolidated the existing functions of engineering, procurement, and supply in a separate organization—the Materiel Division. The old Airplane Engineering Division became the Experimental Engineering Section, composed of six product-oriented branches: airplane, lighter-than-air craft (dirigibles and observation balloons), power plant, equipment, materials, and armament. This organizational rationalization was accompanied by the transfer of the Materiel Division and all aircraft procurement functions from overcrowded buildings at McCook Field to adjacent facilities at the newly acquired Wright Field. 13 Resumption of routine activities at Wright Field included the inspection, testing, analysis, standardization, and improvement of engine fuels and coolants, propellers, lubricants, rubber, glass, metals and fabrics, and other essential materials used in aircraft construction. Some materials, such as aluminum and magnesium alloys, were developed from scratch. Others were tested under simulated operating conditions and analyzed chemically to determine strength 13 In addition to the Experimental Engineering Section, the Materiel Division managed separate sections for administration, procurement, repair and maintenance, field services, and industrial war planning. Slaton, “Aeronautical Engineering at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” 3–6, 8; Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose, 24–35, 44–64, 78–83. The Aircraft Radio Laboratory, which had been established by the Signal Corps at McCook Field shortly after World War I to develop new radio applications for aircraft communication, also moved to Wright Field. The laboratory’s mission expanded in 1935 to include work on radio navigation. J. H. Gardner, “Aircraft Radio Labs,” Radio News 27 (February 1942): 8; W. L. Bayer, “The Signal Corps Aircraft Radio Laboratory,” Journal of Applied Physics 16 (April 1945): 248–49.
74 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 and performance characteristics. Meanwhile, testing and refinement of gun mounts; bomb sites, racks, and release mechanisms; and landing gear were carried out to simplify installation on aircraft and improve operational reliability. 14 Important breakthroughs also came out of Wright Field during this period. In the aircraft (formerly airplane) branch’s structures development and test laboratory, for example, researchers introduced the first practical, all-metal monocoque airframe. 15 Unlike conventional airframes, in which the internal (initially wood) framework or truss supported the entire weight-bearing load, the monocoque design eliminated this requirement by shifting the load to the external skin, thereby reducing the overall weight of the aircraft. Other major innovations to come out of Wright Field—through collaboration with the aircraft industry—included retractable landing gear, night-flying instruments, oxygen equipment and cabin pressurization for high-altitude flight, and the automatic pilot. 16 The onset of World War II prompted a massive expansion of the domestic aircraft industry. During the interwar period, the Army Air Corps had maintained a fleet of less than one thousand serviceable aircraft. Between 1939 and 1945, however, production of aircraft, three-fourths of which were acquired by the Army Air Forces, soared to more than three hundred thousand units. 17 Administrative reorganization matched this sharp increase in aircraft production. In 1942, the Materiel Division at Wright Field became an independent command, which comprised four major divisions: procurement, production, inspection, and engineering. 18 Together these divisions managed a network of public and private-sector institutions in which more than 26,000 individual contractors turned out, at any given time, almost half a million different aircraft parts and essential supplies. The Engineering Division rendered technical assistance on major aircraft components through its four sections (service engineering, aircraft and physical requirements, propulsion 14 W. E. Gillmore, “Work of the Materiel Division of the Army Air Corps,” S. A. E. Journal 25 (September 1929): 233–34; L. H. Engel, “U.S. Air Center Speeds Research,” Science News Letter 36 (8 July 1939): 27; G. H. Brett, “Materiel Division of the U.S. Army Air Corps,” Aero Digest 35 (August 1939): 48–51. 15 The aircraft branch had been established in 1932 through the merger of the airplane and lighterthan-air branches. The following year, the Experimental Engineering Section absorbed the Materiel Division’s Procurement Section. In 1935, this added function was renamed the engineering procurement branch. Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose, 67, 72. 16 A. McSurely, “Wright Field Tests New Air Weapons,” Aviation News 1 (20 March 1944): 12; Slaton, “Aeronautical Engineering at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” 15; Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose, 67–77. 17 Benson, Acquisition Management in the United States Air Force and Its Predecessors, 13. On aircraft acquisition in the Army Air Forces during World War II, see Irving Brinton Holley Jr., Buying Aircraft: Materiel Procurement for the Army Air Forces, in United States Army in World War II, Special Studies (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1964). 18 All logistics functions previously assigned to the Materiel Division transferred to the new Air Service Command at nearby Patterson Field in 1941. In 1944, the Air Service Command and the Materiel Command (the former Materiel Division) merged to form the Air Technical Services Command (ATSC), located at Wright Field. Two years later, ATSC was renamed the Air Materiel Command. In 1945, Wright and Patterson fields merged administratively, and the combined operation was christened the Wright- Patterson Air Force Base in 1948. Benson, Acquisition Management in the United States Air Force and Its Predecessors, 16–17; Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose, 87–88.
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