Ebook: Architects of American Air Supremacy: Gen Hap Arnold and Dr. Theodore von Kármán

This study highlights elements of technology with which Henry H. Arnold and Theodore von Kármán were directly involved. Very little is included covering specific air operations during World War II, although technology was certainly vital to them. Little is included concerning scientific achievement outside of the framework of the Army Air Forces, although the effect of military technological development on the civilian world, during and particularly after the war, is indisputable. More significantly, the evolution of American science itself, from empiricism to a more German, theoretical approach to problem solution, is only indirectly addressed through the evolution of airpower. The biographical approach, emphasizing scientific and technological elements in Arnold’s and Kármán’s lives, is essential because the interaction of personalities, as well as their institutions, is inexorably linked to the development of American airpower. The importance of the personalities involved precludes a purely technological history of the airplane or the Air Force as a system within itself. For in the end, it was two men using their broad experience and innovative ideas, who created the blueprint with which American air supremacy has been built. A major theme of this study is how people influence each other. Consequently, decisions affecting institutions are molded, not just by experience but also by personal influences. This is a history of ideas. It is an examination of how the Air Force has come to believe itself a military service with its base firmly anchored in advanced technology and how those beliefs originated. Additionally, it is the story of how airpower technologies evolved through World War II. Scientists had a hand in technological development, but not the only hand, Government officials directed and funded scientific and technological research. University professors, a large part of the scientific community, accomplished much of the essential research. This posed an interesting problem for Kármán because, traditionally, American science had revolved around utilitarian values rather than theoretical understanding of both practical and scientific problems.