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American Combat Planes of the 20th Century is an incredible reference for anyone who is interested in any American Combat Plane History. There are 758 pages and 1700 b/w photos in this substantial labor of love by Ray Wagner, who has been passionately researching and writing about aircraft for over 50 years. Whether you are already familiar with his past works, or just discovering this accomplished author for the first time... This is the book that you've been waiting for!

If you'd like to see the book's Table of Contents ... Click here. You can also browse the entire Index Section to get an idea of the extensive amount of information that is covered within this book.

Search our site for other combat planes. A- 1 Eaton A- 4 Skyhawk A- 6 & A- 7 Air Weapons AV- 8 to A- 10 A- 20 Havoc A- 22 Martin Maryland A- 23 Martin Baltimore A- 24 Douglas A- 26 Douglas Invader Attack Planes B- 2A, F-111, F-117 Stealth B- 17 Flying Fortress B- 24 Liberator B- 25 North American B- 26 Marauder B- 29 Superfortress B- 32 Dominator B- 35 Flying Wing B- 36 B- 47 Stratojet B- 50 Boeing B- 52 Stratofortress B- 57 Canberra B- 58 Hustler Biplanes Biplanes, Army Pursuits Bombers, B- 70 to Stealth Bombers, First Big Curtiss Falcon CO- 1 DH- 4 De Havilland F3D- Douglas Skyknight F3H- McDonnell Demon F4D- 1 Skyray F4F Grumman Wildcats F- 4U Corsair F6F Grumman F7F Grumman F7U Vought F9F G. Cougar F9F G. Panther F- 16 Fighting Falcon F- 84 F- 86 Sabre F- 89 to F-94 F- 100 to F-108 First Fighters Flying Boats GAX Iraq to Afghanistan Martin Bombers Missile Era Fighters Navy Fighers Navy Flying Boats O- 2 Douglas P- 35 Seversky P- 36 to 42 Curtiss P- 38 Lightning P- 39 Airacobra P- 40 Line P- 47 Thunderbolt P- 51 Mustang Fighter P- 61 Black Widow P- 63 Kingcobra P- 79 to P-81 P- 82 Twin Mustang SB2C Helldiver TBF-TBM Avenger Thomas-Morse Torpedo Planes V- 11 Vultee XB -28 XP -48 / 77

Air Weapons for the Cold War, 1946-1962

RB-36, B-47A, and F-86A

Page 1

Nuclear Bombs and the Cold War
While American occupation troops thoughtfully examined the burned-out heart of Tokyo and the flattened wasteland at Hiroshima, United States policy makers considered the postwar military establishment. Adherence to the United Nations implied a world security system in which armed forces might be dispatched anywhere. Continental defense, center of prewar plans, became secondary to offensive capabilities of global range.

As the United States had the world's only atomic weapons and, in its B-29 fleet, by far the world's best agency to deliver them, it appeared to some that the nation was able to fill the role of world policeman, with little aid from other nations, or even from its own land armies. Long-range nuclear bombing was seen by many as a magic weapon that had ended the war with Japan, would deter any future aggression, and established American leadership in world affairs.

RB-36

In the years following World War II, most of the world polarized into two camps as hostility and tension increased between the United States and the Soviet Union. Nearly all the remaining sea power was American, but Soviet land forces were overwhelmingly larger than those of the United States. Air power seemed to hold the balance, and since the Soviet air force role was almost entirely tactical support for the Red Army, the Strategic Air Force (SAC) became America's main military asset. Nuclear bombs and SAC bombardment capacity was a major weight in the balance of power.

Metal resources largely determine a nation's potential air power and weapons production. During World War Two's most intense year, 1944, steel production in the USSR was 10.9 million tons, compared to 85.1 million tons for the United States. Aluminum production that year in USSR was only 82.7 thousand metric tons, compared to 1,092.9 thousand metric tons for the United States.

The Soviets had tried to compensate for their limitations in aircraft production by using as little metal and as much wood as possible in the smaller aircraft for close support preferred to the heavy strategic bombers and their escort fighters built in America. Aircraft production during 1944 was 40,245 for the USSR, and 96,369 for the United States. B-47A and F-86A

When 1946 began, the Soviet Union lacked the main elements seen in American air power, having no atomic bombs, long-range bombers, aircraft carriers or jet fighters. Soviet wartime losses, including nearly 27 million people, and its naval weakness, made an attack by the USSR on the United States very unlikely for many years.

Clearly, it would take a generation of Soviet forced economic expansion to approach American resources, but by giving first priority to air defense and strictly limiting civilian allocations, a credible response to American air power was made. Gradually the USSR's industry would expand steel output to a close second to America's, and aluminum production to a million tons, but at a cost of prolonging civilian poverty. Only a strict dictatorship could require such sacrifices, while propaganda promoting communist society might win support from the outside.

Air power in America achieved equal status with the Army and Navy through creation of the National Military Establishment on September 18, 1947, with Secretaries of Air, Army, and Navy, under a Secretary of Defense. On July 18, 1947, President Truman appointed an Air Policy Commission headed by Thomas K. Finletter to formulate "an integrated national aviation policy."

The Commission's report submitted on December 30 called for an Air Force of 70 groups: 20 strategic bomber, 5 light bomber, 22 day fighter, 3 all-weather fighter, 6 strategic and 4 tactical reconnaissance, and 10 troop carrier.

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