The Scientific Advisory Group of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

, later renamed the Scientific Advisory Board, was established in 1944, when General

Henry H. Arnold Henry Harley Arnold (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and later, General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), ...

asked Dr.

Theodore von Kármán Theodore von Kármán ( hu, ( szőllőskislaki) Kármán Tódor ; born Tivadar Mihály Kármán; 11 May 18816 May 1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronaut ...

to establish a group of scientists to review the techniques and research trends in aeronautics. The group was asked to evaluate the aeronautical research and development programs and facilities of the

Axis powers of World War II The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

, and to provide recommendations for future

research and development programs. Von Kármán picked the following scientists for initial members of the group: Hugh Dryden, Frank Wattendorf,

Hsue-shen Tsien Qian Xuesen, or Hsue-Shen Tsien (; 11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009), was a Chinese mathematician, cyberneticist, aerospace engineer, and physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineering ...

, T. F. Walkowicz, George S. Schairer, G.E. Valley,

Ivan A. Getting Ivan Alexander Getting (January 18, 1912 – October 11, 2003) was an American physicist and electrical engineer, credited (along with Roger L. Easton and Bradford Parkinson) with the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He was ...

, Edward Mills Purcell, Vladimir K. Zworykin, Lee DuBridge, and

Norman Ramsey Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the const ...

(1967) ''The Wind and Beyond'', pp 269,70

Little Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

Under von Kármán the group put together several reports for General Arnold, including, "Where We Stand" and "Toward New Horizons." General Arnold's vision and Dr. von Kármán's reports led to American airpower dominance and the establishment of the

Air Engineering Development Center The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), Arnold Engineering Development Center before July 2012, is an Air Force Materiel Command facility under the control of the Air Force Test Center (AFTC). Headquartered at Arnold Air Force Base ...

later renamed and dedicated as the

Arnold Engineering Development Center The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), Arnold Engineering Development Center before July 2012, is an Air Force Materiel Command facility under the control of the Air Force Test Center (AFTC). Headquartered at Arnold Air Force Base, ...

(AEDC) in 1951.

References

United States Air Force organization {{US-mil-stub

See also

References