Watson's Whizzers : Operation Lusty and the Race for Nazi Aviation Technology

Watson’s Whizzers is the complex story of the meticulously planned and executed disarmament of the Luftwaffe after its defeat in the spring of 1945, and the retrieval and transfer to the United States of Germany’s advanced aeronautical technology and world-class scientists. Technology so superior that it would in short measure change the look of United States air forces. Although General Spaatz in May 1945 had under his command 17,000 planes of all kinds, the largest air armada ever assembled , they were of little future use. The future was about swept wing aircraft flying at supersonic speeds, or close to it: the incomparable Boeing B-47 jet bomber and its successor the eight jet B-52; the North American F-86 fighter and its supersonic successor the F-100 Supersaber were the immediate results of the German technology transfer and secured America’s future in the darkest days of the Cold War.

Watson’s Whizzers is the complex story of the meticulously planned and executed disarmament of the Luftwaffe after its defeat in the spring of 1945, and the retrieval and transfer to the United States of Germany’s advanced aeronautical technology and world-class scientists. Technology so superior that it would in short measure change the look of United States air forces. Although General Spaatz in May 1945 had under his command 17,000 planes of all kinds, the largest air armada ever assembled , they were of little future use. The future was about swept wing aircraft flying at supersonic speeds, or close to it: the incomparable Boeing B-47 jet bomber and its successor the eight jet B-52; the North American F-86 fighter and its supersonic successor the F-100 Supersaber were the immediate results of the German technology transfer and secured America’s future in the darkest days of the Cold War.