Arnold, Henry Harley (1886–1950)

American Air Force Officer

The architect of the American air arm that helped make the Allied victory in World War II possible, Henry H. “Hap” Arnold devoted his military career to the advancement of air power. His legacies also include the independence of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the technological supremacy that American military aviation has enjoyed since the mid-20th century.

Arnold was born in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 1886. After graduating from West Point in 1907, he was commissioned in the infantry. He transferred into the aeronautical division of the Signal Corps three years later, becoming a flying instructor. During World War I, Arnold served in an administrative post, never experiencing combat.

Arnold enthusiastically embraced the air power theories of Gen. William Mitchell, the Army's outspoken advocate of strategic bombing and an independent air force. When Mitchell was court-martialed for insubordination in 1925, Arnold testified in his defense. Mitchell was convicted and Arnold considered resigning his commission, but decided he could best carry on Mitchell's work by remaining in the Army. He organized a number of practical air power demonstrations in the next decade, including an airdrop of supplies to snowbound villages and a flight of a formation of bombers from California to Alaska.

Arnold earned his first star in 1935 when he became assistant chief of the Army Air Corps. Three years later he was promoted to commander when his superior was killed in a flying accident. One of his first tasks was to manage the expansion of the air corps, authorized by Congress in response to rising war tensions in Europe. Britain and France were also purchasing American aircraft, and Arnold [Page 59]had to work closely with manufacturers, who were unused to such large orders, to ensure that all their customers’ orders were filled on time. Under his guidance, the air corps—redesignated the Army Air Forces (AAF) in 1942—became the largest and most powerful air arm in history and a significant factor in the Allied victories over Germany and Japan. Arnold also established the Civil Air Patrol, the AAF's civilian auxiliary, and the Woman's Army Service Pilots (WASPs), a cadre of female fliers whose domestic aircraft delivery flights freed male pilots for combat duty.

While on a fact-finding tour of Britain in early 1941, Arnold witnessed the test flight of a jet airplane. The United States had no comparable program; American aeronautical engineers had traditionally focused on improving existing technologies rather than developing new ones. Arnold quickly arranged for American manufacturers to design and produce jet engines and aircraft. The first American jet, a fighter, began flying in 1942, but was not used in combat during World War II.

Determined that the United States would not fall behind in aeronautical technology in the future, Arnold commissioned Dr. Theodore von Kármán in 1944 to survey the current state of aeronautics and to identify the technologies the air force should develop after the war. The resulting report, Toward New Horizons (12 vols.), guided air force research and development programs for the next five decades. Among the topics it examined were jet power, supersonic flight, aircraft manufacturing processes and materials, radar, fuels, rockets and missiles, communications, aviation medicine, and space travel.

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