Riding the tide: quantum leaps in technology—a century in the making

Airman, March, 2003 by Chuck Roberts

"Fairly localized damage and casualty expectation became mass destruction and mass casualties," he said. "It made national leadership throughout the world think differently."

As an example, Marlowe cited the bombing of a bridge that might have required 12 to 24 aircraft to destroy during the Vietnam War. One bomb from a single aircraft is all that's required now because of the accuracy and efficiency of precision guided munitions, he said.

Semiconductors and transistors, allowing miniaturization in controlling the flow of electricity, led the wave of technological advancements the past 50 years, Newnam said. "Semiconductors and transistors allowed us to get where we are today. That was the biggest transformational leap forward," the colonel said, explaining the advancement's vital role in developing "smart" bombs and global positioning systems.

The growth of computers, spurred by miniaturization made possible by transistors and microchips, also allowed aircraft to become more efficiently integrated into a total force, said Dr. Marion Williams, chief scientist for the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center.

Such technology allows aircraft computers to receive information from a wide variety of sources and sensors, so "you have no limit on who you can talk to," Williams said.

Leading the way

The correlation between the Air Force and technological advancements has been in place since the Wright brothers opened negotiations with the government in 1905 to procure an airplane.

"It's a very prosperous mutual relationship," van der Linden said. "Technology and the Air Force are one in the same."

Planes fly faster due in part to Air Force prompting of civilian companies over the years. Development of bombers helped evolve commercial passenger aircraft.

"It goes back and forth on who drives who for improvements," van der Linden said.

And its leadership hasn't gone unnoticed or unrewarded. For example, in 1937 the Army Air Corps won the Collier Trophy for its design and flight test of a highly modified Lockheed Model 10E Electra -- known as the XC-35 that had the first pressurized cabin. The trophy is administered by the National Aeronautic Association and is awarded annually for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency and safety of air or space vehicles" demonstrated during the preceding year. There have been many other awards through the years.

Also along the way, the Air Force sponsored 49 Nobel Prize winners through its Office of Scientific Research, the basic research manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory. Past winners include John Bardeen in 1956 for his research on semiconductors and his discovery of the transistor effect, and Willard Libby in 1960 for his method to use carbon-14 dating for age determination in archeology, geology, geophysics and other branches of science.

The Air Force can be proud of its role in advancing such technology, Shelton said.

"More than any other service, our roots are based in technological advances," he said. "As aircraft technologies matured, the nation realized that a separate service could best nurture this relatively new form of warfare. And as we in the Air Force continue to extend our reach to space, technological advances will allow us to establish space supremacy alongside air supremacy as fundamental prerequisites for successful military operations."