It Sounded Like a Good Idea at the Time...
Case Histories of Troubled Projects
Compiled by Kimble D. McCutcheon
Published 5 Dec 2023; Revised 27 Jan 2024
| In the years leading up to WWII, during WWII, and immediately after WWII, the Army Air Corps/Forces and U.S. Air Force Materiel Command (hereinafter MatCmd) fielded thousands of proposals meant to improve war materials, materiel, processes and production. These ranged from really good ideas, to hair-brained schemes, to dishonest scams. After WWII ended, MatCmd commissioned an interesting series of Case History files, which, in large part, documented the failures. A selected number of these are presented here in Summary form. Each has a longer and much more detailed Brief form, which is available to AEHS Members wishing more information on the individual Case Histories. The Triptane Case History is an example of the Brief form. Please email the webmaster using the link at the page bottom to request these. Unless otherwise noted, documents in these case histories were obtained from the files of Air Materiel Command, Wright Field and Headquarters, Army Air Forces, Washington, DC. These reports were compiled by Historical Division, Intelligence, T-2, Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Ohio. |
Pratt & Whitney's Variable Discharge Turbosupercharger (VDT) Engine
Canadian Car and Foundry HI-4800 3,000 hp Diesel Oil Engine
Send mail to
with questions or comments about this web site.
This website depends on cookies to make it function. If you continue to browse, scroll, click or otherwise interact, you are providing implicit acknowledgement of and agreement to this.
Copyright © 2002-2024 Aircraft Engine Historical Society