In the years before World War II, the US slowly built the foundation needed for a massive air effort. The 1920s and 1930s budgets were tight, airmen were scarce, and inventories were small, yet the aviation plans of that era were critical. By the late 1930s, many of the designs that would help create the mighty wartime Army Air Forces were in design or test. Even aircraft no longer state of the art by the time of Pearl Harbor had helped set the stage for the more advanced designs. The North American O-47B was an advanced observation aircraft when introduced in the late 1930s.Vital to efforts in the China-Burma-India Theater was the Curtiss C-46 Commando, flying here in the foreground. The C-46 first was delivered in July 1942.
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