Robin van Spaandonk wrote:
I suspect WWII worked as a long term stimulus, because of the increased R&D that it required, which later paid off in other areas. E.g. air transport.
Probably it did, but that long term stimulus does not explain the immediate post-war boom. It took 10 or 20 years for most of the technology developed during the war to reach the marketplace. Penicillin and some plastics became available immediate, but things like computers and jet aircraft were not common until 1960, and did not have an impact in the late '40s.
Many of the airplanes manufactured during the war were obsolescent, especially the DC-3. The military wanted a tried-and-true design. Frontline fighters were of the latest designs, and evolved rapidly.
I recall there were ~20,000 surplus DC-3s on the market after the war. A huge glut. Douglas tried to sell an upgraded model, the Super DC-3, but it did not sell because it cost $200,000 at a time when you could buy a surplus original model DC-3 for $8,000 (B. Yenne, p. 151).
My guess is that the GI Bill was the biggest long term stimulus. - Jed
