Today, I look back on the years of stimulating growth in aviation during World War II. As a pilot, I saw great nations competing against one another to design and build aircraft in huge numbers, upon which their very survival would depend. The best brains and assets were mobilized to defeat the enemy with this high-technology tool for war.The factories spewed forth planes in unbelievable numbers and quality. The U.S. approached the fantastic number of 10,000 planes a month, which President Roosevelt had asked to be produced. It was amazing how housewives came out of the kitchen to be put in a factory and build aircraft, one after another. Where did the designers, engineers and materials come from? There were very good managers and production engineers to set up assembly lines for untrained and unskilled people to turn out the new, high-performance planes.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/a-pilots-history-chap-12-reflections