Oliver P . Echols Oliver Patton Echols ( March 4 , 1892 – May 15 , 1954 ) was an American military officer who brought success in World War II to the United States Army Air Forces by expanding the inventory of America ' s air arm to meet the needs of the coming war . More than any other man under Chief of the Army Air Forces , General Henry H . Arnold , Echols was responsible for the development , procurement and supply of aircraft and aeronautical equipment . Fighter projects officer Benjamin S . Kelsey , directly subordinate to Echols from 1934 to 1945 , called him " The Man Who Won World War II . " Early career . Oliver Patton Echols was born on March 4 , 1892 in Charlottesville , Virginia , to William Holding Echols , a university professor . Oliver Echols attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the University of Virginia , studying aviation engineering . Echols enlisted in 1916 and served in World War I with the United States Army Air Service , American Expeditionary Force , from August 1917 to April 1919 , participating as an aviator in the battles of Champagne - Marne , Aisne - Marne , St . Mihiel and Meuse - Argonne . At the rank of captain , Echols served as Chief of Air Service , I Corps , for the final drive against German forces . Echols ' s 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 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 . War production . In January 1936 , Echols telephoned Howard Hughes to say the Air Corps was interested in purchasing the record - breaking Hughes H - 1 Racer as a pursuit plane — it was faster than anything they had . Hughes agreed to fly the aircraft to Wright Field for a demonstration , but he failed to show up for the appointment that Echols had set up with higher Air Corps brass . After that snub , Echols never again gave Hughes a chance to bid on Air Corps projects , not even in October 1941 when Hughes offered the twin - boom D - 2 fighter - bomber design . Echols allowed Wright Field engineers to examine the D - 2 but they concluded that it would be too heavy for its own engines after incorporating required military features such as armor plate , a bullet - resistant windshield and stronger landing gear . 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 Echols continued to play the major role in the production of the prime tools of American airpower . The real impetus to aircraft production came in May 1940 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 December 7 , 1941 , the airframe weight of U . S . aircraft production increased sixfold — from the rate of per year , to . By November 1942 the production rate had tripled again , to 50 , 000 aircraft per year . In the following year and a half to June 1944 , Echols supervised another tripling of production . From 1941 on , United States aircraft production was much greater than the combined output of Japan and Germany , and the force of 3 , 305 combat planes in December 1941 grew to 41 , 000 in August 1945 . Not all of these aircraft were of self - powered metal construction : in March 1942 , Echols told the joint Senate - House committee that the Army Air Corps had ordered 1000 wooden gliders , each capable of carrying 50 soldiers . One of Echols ' s 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 Army Air Forces in the committee task of coordination of all production , and the establishment of priorities for use of tools , materiel and manpower within the national war program . Helping to determine the relative strength of air versus land and sea forces of the United States were one of Echols ' s responsibilities , as was the task of deciding relative strengths of fighter aircraft to light - , medium - and heavy bomber forces . In early 1939 , a combination of Army Air Forces tactical staff under General Arnold and Materiel Division engineers under then - Lieutenant Colonel Echols , prescribed the military requirements around which the B - 29 Superfortress was to be built . As Boeing was testing the first prototype , Echols surprised Chief Engineer Wellwood Beall of Boeing by telling him that the Army Air Forces intended to spend $ 2 billion on the bomber . 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 , 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 Liberator , the B - 17 Flying Fortress , the B - 50 Superfortress and the B - 36 Peacemaker . He helped with the initial planning that led to the B - 47 Stratojet and B - 52 Stratofortress and the earliest American jet aircraft . Echols participated in the decision to have General Electric reproduce Frank Whittle ' s W . 2B jet engine for American jet fighter designs . In May 1945 , Echols was sent to Germany to re - assemble and administer local government , public health , safety and welfare programs , to supervise education and religion , and to direct all communications . 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 . Echols helped select government specialists for occupation duty in Japan . Major General Echols retired on December 1 , 1946 . Northrop . In civilian life , Echols continued to help strengthen the nation ' s airpower potential . As president of the Aircraft Industries Association ( AIA ) from 1947 to 1949 , his reputation for vision , decisiveness and good humor became even more widely appreciated . In August 1947 , Echols was called before a War Investigating committee led by Senator Homer Ferguson , to uncover misconduct in wartime contracts given to Howard Hughes . Echols testified that the president ' s son , Elliott Roosevelt , who as an Army Air Forces major and lieutenant colonel had flown the successful P - 38 Lightning photo reconnaissance variant during the North Africa campaign , had put political pressure on the AAF in 1943 to purchase the unneeded Hughes XF - 11 photo reconnaissance aircraft over the objections of Echols and Chief of Air Staff Barney M . Giles . The committee uncovered more than $ 5 , 000 in entertainment spent on Roosevelt by a paid Hughes publicist . Echols joined Northrop in 1949 as chairman of the board and chief executive officer . In 1952 , Jack Northrop , broken by the cancellation of the B - 35 and B - 49 projects , gave up running his company to return to pure engineering , and made Echols president and general manager . Under the direction of Echols , 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 sudden death on May 15 , 1954 . Legacy . General of the Air Force Henry H . " Hap " Arnold said of Echols in May 1945 : United States Air Force Brigadier General Benjamin S . Kelsey dedicated his book " The Dragon ' s Teeth ? " to Echols , writing in 1981 that his A Falcon Scholarship in honor of Echols is sponsored each year by Northrop for a student seeking United States Air Force Academy admission with the intention of becoming an Air Force officer . Personal life . Echols married Margaret Elizabeth Bailey ( 1892 – 1990 ) of Rockport , Texas on December 28 , 1920 in El Paso . They had one daughter , Mary Beirne Echols , born November 28 , 1926 in Dayton . The Echols family was living in Greene , Ohio in 1930 at the time of the decade census . In 1940 , the family moved to Washington , D . C . so that Echols could be closer to his work in government war production . Mary married in 1948 and delivered two children before Echols died , and two more afterward . Echols was originally buried at Arlington National Cemetery , but his remains were moved to join those of his wife at Rockport Cemetery in Aransas County , Texas after her death in 1990 .