WINGS #4

1. What new technologies revolutionized aerial combat in WWII?

The development of high-octane aviation gasoline contributed to aviation development. Oscar Westover, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps, said “the development of high-octane aviation gasoline ‘contributed more to aeronautical development in the world than any other single accomplishment in the past eight years’” (p 388). New engines were developed that allowed airplanes to fly 400 miles longer. However, these faster engines created a higher internal heat, which led to new problems. The higher temperatures inside the cylinder can ignite the mixture of fuel and air inside. This results in a reduction in power and destruction of the engine. Thomas Midgley discovered that adding lead to gasoline reduced knocking in car engines. He found this in 1922 when researching at Dayton Engineering Laboratories.

The knocking problem continued in high-power aircraft engines and a solution was researched at the Army Air Corps power plant laboratory. In 1926, an employer of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, Graham Edgar, found that burning isooctane reduced the knocking the aviation engines. Aviation engines could not burn only isooctane because it was so expensive. Therefore, only small amounts of isooctane were mixed with regular gasoline to try to reduce knocking. The overall goal was to get to a point where the fuel was 100% octane. This goal of creating 100-octane gasoline was attained in 1934 by Shell Oil. Jimmy Doolittle headed the operation and worked off the discovery Sam D. Heron had made about the correlation between knocking and internal temperature. At first, the prices of the 100-octane gasoline were high because of the low quantity made, so the airlines tried to steer clear of using the gasoline. The Air Corps started to produce more of the gasoline and the prices began to drop. The creation of this octane gasoline “was one of the keys to the Allied Victory in the air during World War II” (p 390).

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

From the design revolution of the 1930’s, the modern bomber was created. Boeing built a bomber in 1931 called the Boeing B-9. This bomber had its advantages, like an open cockpit and light bomb load, but not many were made. There was a bomber created in 1933 that was 45 mph faster than the Boeing B-9 flying at 200 mph. This bomber was the Martin B-10 and it was the first of its kind to have closed cockpits and all-metal exterior. The B-10 was also a monoplane and had a rotating gun turret. Several of the B-10s were sold, not only to the United States, but also to foreign countries. The B-10 was more advanced than the B-9 and also the foreign aircraft. In WWII, the English bombers still flew biplanes made of wood lined with fabric. In 1940, the Germans flew the French Amiot 143, which flew 10 mph slower than the B-10. The fact that other countries were behind in building of the bomber demonstrated the advancement of America’s aviation production, especially during WWII.

America created a “secret” war device for WWII and it was called the Norden bombsight. It was so important that the bombers who were in charge of the Norden bombsight promised to protect it with their lives. The bombsight was “American way of war” and was seen as the most clean and efficient way to distribute destruction (p 390). The chief of the air force, General Benjamin Delahauf Foulois, even said “the Norden bombsight [is] the most important of the Air Corps’s secret military projects” (p 390). It is seen that the B-10 was a significant aircraft during WWII because it was the only plane on which the Norden bombsight was tested. The Air Corps thought that an important airplane should carry the “precision bombsight” (p 390). This revolution with the B-10 carrying the bombsight started the advancement in aviation war technology during WWII.

3. How did the war in the air during WWII lay the foundation for the age of international air commerce?

The air war brought about major destruction during WWII. Several people were killed because of the use of airplanes in WWII. “If air power did not win the war, as its prewar adherents had hoped, it had shaped the nature and character of the conflict” (p 400). Aviation brought about new means of attacking another country and it left two cities in ruins at the end of WWII. A “global war” had started and all because of the airplane. The airplane advanced because of war. Once flying across large stretches of land and water had been done, the plane then developed those areas into places of war. The war was stressing the aviation industry to continue to progress and advance because the air forces could see the damage aircraft had in war; each country wanted to be on the higher end of the stick as far as war aviation went. The world record for highest speed in a propeller-driven aircraft is still the Dornier Do 335, which was created during WWII. There were airplanes used from World War II until the end of the 1900s that were just revamped and modified from when they were first developed. There were planes still flown into the decade following the war like the P-51, F4U and B-29. The models created during World

The airplane did not just bring about destruction. It also led to the creation of new aviation technologies. During the war, jet and rocket propulsion were created. Electronic systems inside airplanes were invented to coincide with the electronics on the ground. “Nuclear weapons and the first practical computers moved from pure theory to revolutionary practice during the war” (p 401). The establishment of these technologies steered toward the inventions of many devices used today.