Abstract
The research and development of the aeronautical technology was relatively independently pursued by various sectors during the Asia-Pacific War(1931-1945) : Manufacturing companies developed aircraft prototypes based upon the Army and the Navy request. The Army and the Navy undertook research works at their own research institutes. When the Technology Board(Gijutsuin) was established at the beginning of 1942 as a central governmental agency for mobilizing science and technology, aeronautical research was selected as one of the major objectives. This paper shows that aeronautical research conducted in the Aeronautical Institute of Tokyo Imperial University and such institutions under the Technology Board like the National Central Aeronautical Institute was strongly affected by the Army's request to the research institutions outside the Army. The Army consistently insisted that the aeronautical institutions should conduct applied research more. Until 1937 the Army had been critical of the Aeronautical Institute of Tokyo Imperial University as conducting only academic research. The institute then accepted the applied research that the Army outsourced to the institute. In 1941 just before the war broke out the Army required the reform of the research. In the Army's perspective, the institutes outside should develop such new technologies as high altitude flight. The Army tried to bring in the new agendas based upon their survey on German recent research system. The Technology Board made the plan for setting up the new aeronautical institutes including the National Central Aeronautical Institute just to meet the Army's request, and the aeronautical institutes under the board undertook these research agendas in a piecemeal way.
