AEDC at 75: Hap Arnold’s vision takes flight

American scientist Frank Wattendorf surrounded by Arnold Engineering Development Complex construction photographs. Wattendorf was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group formed by Theodore von Kármán at the request of Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and the U.S. Air Force’s only five-star general. The group visited Germany in May 1945 to survey testing and research facilities there. The group would later present these findings and their recommendations for future U.S. aeronautical research and development in a report entitled Toward New Horizons. Prior to this, Wattendorf penned his own report, known as the Trans-Atlantic Memo, to Brig. Gen. Franklin O. Carroll, then commander of Wright Field’s engineering division. Wattendorf’s memo became the first recommendation for a site such as AEDC. (U.S. Air Force photo)