Roscoe Charles Wilson (June 11, 1905 – August 21, 1986) was a United States Air Force general who was Commandant of the Air War College from 1951 to 1954 and Deputy Chief of Staff, Development, from 1958 to 1961.
From October 1951 to May 1954 Wilson was Commandant of the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He then became commander of the Third Air Force in the United Kingdom. He was promoted to lieutenant general on July 1, 1958, when he became Deputy Chief of Staff, Development. He retired from the Air Force in 1961 and became president and chairman of Allied Research.
Wilson attended the Air Corps Engineering School at Wright-Patterson Field, Ohio from July 1932 to June 1933.[4] After graduating, he was assigned to the Aircraft Design Section of the Aircraft Laboratory there,[3] where he worked on the development of the P-39, XB-15, B-17 and XB-19.[4] He was promoted to first lieutenant on February 1, 1934, and was Director of the Special Research and Test Laboratory and Director of Accessory Design and Test Laboratory.[1]
Wilson came back to West Point in July 1937 as an instructor in the Department of Natural and Experimental Philosophy,[1] as the Science Department was then known. He was promoted to captain on July 9, 1938.[4] From May to August 1939, he attended the Air Corps Tactical School,[1] after which he returned to West Point as an assistant professor.[3] While there he built a wind tunnel, and wrote a book, entitled Preliminary Airplane Design, which was published in 1941.[7]
World War II
Silverplate B-29 Straight Flush. B-29 bombers required special modifications to carry nuclear weapons.
In June 1940, Wilson was posted back to Wright Field as Assistant Chief of the Air Laboratory of the Air Materiel Command, where he was promoted to major on January 31, 1941, lieutenant colonel on February 1, 1942, and colonel on March 1, 1942. He became Assistant Chief of Development Engineering at United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Headquarters in Washington, DC, on May 1, 1942, and then its Chief on June 2, 1943.[3] As such, he reported to Major GeneralOliver P. Echols, the head of the Air Materiel Command.[8]
The Chief of USAAF, GeneralHenry H. Arnold, designated Echols as the USAAF liaison with the Manhattan Project. In turn, Echols designated Wilson as his alternative, and it was Wilson who became Manhattan Project's main USAAF contact. The director of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves later wrote that:
[Wilson] was a most fortunate choice, for his personality and professional competence ensured the smooth co-operation essential to our success. Through his efforts, the necessary air support was always provided by the subordinate Air Force commands, if not willingly, at least without delay.
While I can say the same of every other Air Force officer with whom I had any dealings in the project, I have always felt particularly grateful to Wilson, for he had to bear the brunt of all our many minor problems with the Air Force as well as a major responsibility for a number of our principal activities. I am sure that he must have had many difficult moments with his Air Force colleagues, as he denied them, for security reasons, information they considered essential to understand the reasons for his requests.[9]
After the war, Wilson served in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Materiel and Supply, the Office of the Deputy Commander of the Army Air Force, and Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development.[4] On July 26, 1947, he became one of the deputy chiefs of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, with the rank of brigadier general from April 1948.[3] He also served on the Military Liaison Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.[4] He became Deputy Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, operations, for Atomic Energy, in July 1948, and Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, for Atomic Energy, in February 1950,[3] although he remained on the Military Liaison Committee. He was promoted to major general on August 11, 1950.[4]
Goldberg, Alfred (1955). "Equipment and Services". In Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (eds.). Vol. VI, Men and Planes. The Army Air Forces in World War II. University of Chicago Press. pp. 171–426. OCLC249108060. Retrieved August 7, 2011.