I took an aviation history class in college. One of the topics discussed was how each time we entered a major war we were completely unprepared, and then when those wars ended we forgot that lesson and neglected our military, thinking we would never have to do that again.
Going into WWI, our pilots had to fly French airplanes for a while. Entering WWII, we were still flying biplanes while the Germans had already developed monoplanes and laminar flow airfoils. Incidentally, they advanced their aeronautical knowledge by flying gliders during the interwar years, as the Treaty of Versailles severely limited their ability to produce and fly powered aircraft. No one seemed to notice that what was thought to be just recreational flying was actually the perfect test bed for refining wing designs to be used later in fighter aircraft.
Each time we managed to belatedly gather the necessary resolve and catch up, but in today's world the consequences of being caught yet again with our pants down would be "unacceptable." If ("when", please God) Trump is elected, he must press Congress hard to launch a serious military rebuilding effort, including resumption of nuclear testing (the only way to know for sure if existing weapons are still reliable) and modernization of the nuclear arsenal.
Our aircraft were on a par with the AXIS countries in 1941.
>Entering WWII, we were still flying biplanes while the Germans had already developed monoplanes and laminar flow airfoils. Incidentally, they advanced their aeronautical knowledge by flying gliders during the interwar years, as the Treaty of Versailles severely limited their ability to produce and fly powered aircraft. No one seemed to notice that what was thought to be just recreational flying was actually the perfect test bed for refining wing designs to be used later in fighter aircraft.
You’re quite wrong. The US was the leader in military aviation before WW2 started and we extended our lead during the war. We were flying excellent single engine monoplanes with good top speeds and armament. We had the only working long range every bomber in the world (B17) and we moved quickly to modern designed like the B29 while everyone else was just trying to get their heavy bombers flying. Our CAS planes out classed the Germans stucka in their ability to fight back against fighters and even our carrier planes started ripping up the the excellent Japanese zero after we worked out the right tactics.
The only biplanes we were still flying were torpedo bombers.
The P51 was our crowning achievement. Designed in 1940 before we entered the war.
>The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission for license-built Curtiss P-40 fighters. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed and first flew on 26 October.[5][6]
That’s right, we built the P51 in 102 days. America was rocking aviation before we got into WW2.
Washington Naval Treaty
Showing the Japanese how to Use an AircraftCarrer and a surprise air attack in a War-Game against the Panama Canal