Hofstetter WINGS #4

1. Why did some world leaders and theologians feel that flying would be the end of mankind?

During the decades after the invention of flight, people had varying opinions on the effect flying would have on the world. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin wished that flying had not been invented as he thought aerial attacks on people would be the end of civilization. Baldwin believed it wise that every person on the street to realize that there’s nothing stopping him or her from being bombed from the skies. He believed the only defense to being bombed was to kill more women and children than the enemy did by bombing. Saint John Chrysostom specialized in anti-Semitic attacks. He saw wings as a symbol of inescapable divine judgment. Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, a Spanish theologian believed that God denied men flight so that they may lead a quiet and tranquil life. Noel Andre agreed that flying would be the greatest calamity that could befall society. English philosopher William Derham believed flight would give men more opportunities to do mischief. Johann Daniel Major thought flight would make the world more hateful and ruinous than when gunpowder was discovered. Author Samuel Johnson summed up what many were believing by stating that, “If men were all virtuous… I should with alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good, if the bad could at pleasure invade them form the sky?” (pg. 356-357).

4. What type of aircraft emerged from the design revolution of the 1930’s and what role would it play during WWII?

The type of aircraft that emerged from the design revolution of the 1930s was the modern bomber. The Boeing B-9 was created in 1931 and possessed pencil-thin fuselage, open cockpits, light bomb load, and limited defensive armament. It was the first significant step toward the Boeing 247. The Martin B-10 created in 1933 was the first modern, all-metal monoplane bomber to enter the military service. It was 45 mph faster than the Boeing B-9 and had enclosed cockpits, a rotating gun turret, and an internal bomb bay. Boeing sold two hundred B-10s to the United States and other air forces. The earliest models of the Norden bombsight were tested on the B-10. In 1934, General Benjamin Delahauf Foulosis, chief of the Air Corps, stated that the Norden bombsight was the most important of the secret military projects. The Norden bombsight came to symbolize the American way of war with efficient delivery of destruction in a clean, precise fashion. The Norden bombsight actually become the best-known American secret during World War II.  Forty-nine bombers, forty torpedo bombers, and fifty-one dive-bombers swept Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Millions of lives were lost during World War II, many as a result of bombers. Air power shaped the nature and character of conflict from that war on (pg. 390-400).

8. How did WWII transform the prewar United States aviation industry into the huge aerospace and defense industrial complex it is today?

World War II transformed the small prewar community of airframe and engine builders into the huge aerospace and defense industrial complex that it is today. Globally, the number of aircraft produced saw enormous growth during the war years. From 1938 to 1944, the number of military aircraft produced in the United States increased from 1.8 thousand to 96.3 thousand. Similar growth was seen in Germany, Japan, and Great Britain, but nothing as impressive as the growth in the United States military. In the 1930s, American airplanes were the envy of the world, but only the product of a small enterprise. In 1939, aviation ranked forty-first among American industries. Forty manufacturers produced 5,865 airplanes. Most of the airplanes were business aircraft or light airplanes. Only 159 were commercial airliners. 560 airplanes were delivered to the Air Corps. The number of light aircraft produced more than doubled from 1938 as a result of purchases by flying schools that the United States government used to train pilots under the new Civilian Pilot Training Program. By the end of the decade, the United States had the finest commercial aviation system in the world. Throughout the years 1931-1939, military expenditures remained the most important source of income for airframe manufacturers. Since 1931, seventy percent of corporate income to aircraft industry has come from military contracts (pg. 426-430).