Science and Air Warfare “Wars are fought with weapons based on fundamentals discovered during the preceding years of peace,” wrote Dr. Theodor von Karman in 1945. During World War II tremendous new scientific developments -electronics, jet propulsion, missiles and rockets, and nuclear weapons-influenced the conduct and potential of air warfare. The scientific fundamentals of each [...]

Tactical Air Support for Ground Warfare Other nations had planned to employ aviation in support of their ground forces, but the techniques of the Luftwaffe in Poland, Norway, the Low Countries, and northern France during 1939 and 1940 established a model of effectiveness. Organized into air fleets (Luftflotten) and air corps (Fliegerkorps), the Luftwaffe jealously [...]

Doctrines Aviation had little effect on the outcome of the surface battles of World War I because it was still in its developmental infancy. In each major nation after the war, however, civilian and military leaders studied the ideas of such men as Britain’s Sir Hugh Trenchard, America’s William Mitchell, and Italy’s Giulio Douhet. The [...]