ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- A decade before Arnold Engineering Development Complex was dedicated and several years before the establishment of the U.S. Air Force, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold was in England to assess production during World War II.
There, the commanding general of the Army Air Forces saw something that left him astounded. Arnold observed during his 1941 visit a British plane flying without a propeller.
“Regardless of what anybody says, I want this for the U.S.,” Arnold said.
This sight would serve to accelerate advancements to the nation’s military aircraft technology, as Arnold’s desire to bring such a capability to American planes would soon usher in the jet age.
The event also helped set in motion the steps that would eventually lead to the establishment of AEDC.
American production lines during the second World War were focused on the manufacture of military hardware for the Allied forces, meaning they would be unable to quickly restructure assembly lines to construct a new type of engine.
Aside from this, Arnold did not wish to disrupt the assembly of materials. Still, he was undeterred. He asked General Electric to build a version of the British Whittle turbojet engine for American aircraft. He also sought the help of Bell Aircraft in the construction of the airframe that would house the engine.
In October 1942, the Bell XP-59A Airacomet, the first jet produced in the U.S., made its first flight near the current site of Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Arnold gleaned from this experience that the development of new equipment such as the Airacomet would require the establishment of research and development organizations and improved testing facilities.
A year before his visit to England, Arnold appointed renowned mathematician, physicist and engineer Theodore von Kármán to be his special adviser at Wright Field, Ohio. In his biography “The Wind and Beyond,” von Kármán wrote that in 1944, he and Arnold met at LaGuardia Airport in New York to discuss national defense needs. According to von Kármán, Arnold’s mind was on the future.
“General Arnold wasted no time in coming to the point,” von Kármán wrote. “’We have won this war and I am no longer in it,’ [Arnold] said. ‘I do not think we should spend time debating whether we obtained the factory by sheer power or by some qualitative superiority. Only one thing should concern us. What is the future of air power and aerial warfare? What is the bearing of the new inventions such as jet propulsion, rockets, radar and the other electronic devices?’
“I listened with fascination. I had always admired Arnold’s great vision, but I think then that I was more impressed than ever. This was September 1944. The war was not over; in fact, the Germans were to launch the Battle of the Bulge in December. Yet, Arnold was already casting his sights far beyond the war and realizing, as he always had, that the technical genius which could help find answers for him was not cooped up in military or civilian bureaucracy but was to be found in universities and in the people at large.”
Von Kármán asked what Arnold expected of him. The scientist wrote that the general replied:
“’I want you to come to the Pentagon and gather a group of scientists who will work out a blueprint for air research for the next 20, 30, perhaps 50 years.’”
Arnold tasked von Kármán with forming an advisory group responsible to the Air Corps chief to provide recommendations on the future direction of aviation research.
At Arnold’s behest, the newly formed Scientific Advisory Group in May 1945 visited Germany to get a firsthand look at the testing and research facilities here. In Munich, Goettingen, Otztal, Kochel, Braunschweig and other captured test centers in Germany, the group found facilities, rockets, jet engines and aircraft – all more advanced than the Allies had imagined.
Among the advisory group members who made the trip to Germany was American scientist Frank Wattendorf. Like others who made the journey, Wattendorf, who was responsible for surveying German wind tunnels and engine test facilities, was alarmed by what he saw as German ground testing facilities were vastly superior to those of Allied nations.
But, in the German facilities, Wattendorf also saw possibilities.
This is the first in a series of articles highlighting the history of Arnold Engineering Development Complex during its first 75 years. Additional articles will be published throughout 2026 to commemorate the anniversary of AEDC.