Department of the United States Air Force LogoBiography
                  United States Air ForceThis is the official portrait of Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Echols.
            MAJOR GENERAL OLIVER  P. ECHOLSMajor General Oliver P. Echols was the Air Force's chief materiel officer throughout World War II. More than any other man under the commanding general of the Army Air Force, General Echols was responsible for the development, procurement and supply of aircraft and aeronautical equipment for the Air Force.
Never, before or since, has our nation been required to bring into being such large numbers of military aircraft. Between July 1940 and August 1945 the Air Force handled the procurement of 230,287 aircraft. The Air Force received more than $43.5 billion worth of air materiel - and aircraft accounted for $82.5 billion of this.
General Echols was assistant chief of the Materiel Division at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio from 1939 to 1940. As chief of that division, which was headquartered in Washington, he served from 1940 to 1942. In March 1942, a reorganization changed his title to commanding general, Materiel Command, in the Army Air Forces headquarters - a position changed a year later to assistant chief of staff for materiel, maintenance and distribution. Until April 1945 General Echols continued to play the major role in the production of the prime tools of airpower.
The real impetus to aircraft production came in May l940 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt went to Congress with a call for a program of no less than 50,000 "military and naval" aircraft per year for the nation's defense. (The Air Corps and the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics agreed that the Navy would get 12,500 of these.)
A year and a half later, on Dec. 7, 1941, the airframe weight of U.S. aircraft production increased sixfold - from the rate of 20,000,000 pounds per year, to 120,000,000 pounds. By November 1942 the production rate had tripled again. (50,000 aircraft were being manufactured year1y.) In the following year and a half to June 1944 there was another tripling of production.
From 1941 on, United States aircraft production was much greater than the combined output of Japan and Nazi Germany, and the Air Force of 3,305 combat planes in December 1941 grew to 41,000 in August 1945.
One of General Echols most important yet little known roles was his membership from 1943 to 1945 on the Air Production Board and on the Executive Committee of the War Production Board. He represented the Air Force in the committee task of coordination of all production, and the establishment of priorities for use of tools, materials and manpower within the national war program.
In early 1939 Air Force tactical staffs under General H.H. "Hap" Arnold and Materiel Division engineers under Echols, then a lieutenant colonel, prescribed the military requirements around which the B-29 was to be built. The first production model was completed in July 1943 and 11 months later B-29s were bombing Japan.
While at Wright Field and in Washington, General Echols was known in the profession as the man chiefly responsible for the long, hard process of bringing a plane into being - planes such as the B-24 and the advanced B-17, the B-29, B-50 and the B-36. He helped with the initial planning that led to the B-47 and B-52 and the early jet aircraft.
From May 1945 until he retired in 1947, General Echols served successively as Chief, Internal Affairs for the U.S. Control Council for Germany, as assistant deputy military governor in Germany, and director of Civil Affairs Division of the War Department Special Staff.
But in civilian life General Echols continued to help strengthen the nation's airpower potential. As president of the Aircraft Industries Association from 1947 to 1949, his reputation for vision, decisiveness and good humor became even more widely appreciated.
He joined Northrop Corporation in 1949 as chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Later, he also was made president and general manager. Under his direction, Northrop's work force increased from 8,000 to 24,000 employees, and the company's backlog of orders advanced from $70 million to $557 million at the time of his death on May 15, 1954.
Oliver P. Echols was born in Charlottsville, Va., in 1892. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the University of Virginia.
He served with the U.S. Air Service, American Expeditionary Force, from August 1917 to April 1919, participating in the battles of Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel and Meues-Argonne.
His educational and military preparation for his later specialization included attendance at the Army Industrial College, Command and General Staff School, Army War College, and Air Corps Tactical School. He held a pilot's rating. He served in the Air Corps Experimental Engineering Section and the Procurement Section before becoming the chief engineer of the Materiel Division from 1934 to 1938.
This tribute was paid to General Echols in May 1945 by General "Hap" Arnold, Army Air Forces commanding general.
"No one knows better than you the terrific problems we have faced in the development and perfection of our equipment and in obtaining the necessary production. I know of no one who could have carried the Air Force's responsibilities in these fields than you have. The task could never have been done had not the Army Air Forces been represented in these matters by an officer having the full confidence of the Congress, the departments and civilian agencies of government, industry and labor. This trust, as well as my own, has been yours and deservedly. The country, the Army Air Forces and I, personally, owe you a real debt of gratitude."
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