Only in the sense that Indian was tinkering with a 100cc OHV *sport version* circa 1950, with H-D's flathead 750cc K Sportster not to come along until 1952, with the 883cc/55-inch OHV XL Sportster engine eventually introduced in 1957. It wasn't until 1972 that the 1000cc Ironhead Sportster engine was offered by the factory, Indian having only been ahead of the Milwaukee engineering team by 20 years.
As with the rear suspension on the big Indians that appeared in '46, not to show up on FLH Harletys until 1958, Indian was ahead on engineering points as usual. Pricey, but if they'd only been offered and available, Harley might have made some of their changes sooner, too
As for the '72 XLH/XLCH hitting 1000cc's, I don't really think it was a big improvement. I had a '72 and I borrowed a friend's '69 "900" for a spin. Really didn't see or feel much of a difference.
Indian may have been better served (hindsight, surely) if they had absorbed Crocker's Indian OHV conversion business and incorporated it into their own model lines way back in the '30s. Too bad HD had some part in crushing Crocker (by messing with parts suppliers Crocker was dealing with rumor has it)before it MAY have made the jump beyond custom "to-order" and into regular mass production. They had a unit V-Twin that could outrun most Indians and HD models at the time according to what I've read of testing they did. Of course, the fact that Crockers were being sold at a loss didn't help. Their speedway motors were also not performing on the level that cheaper JAP motors were.
Have a great weekend....signing off.