"tadaa" wrote in message ...
had actually put a U.S. style R&D system in place during WWII, and
instead of coming up with (however pretty they look on paper) dozens
of designs that never made it beyond wind tunnal designs and focused
on say two or three fighter designs.
For example, if they'd pushed through the first jet fighter design
in 1940 (I forget what it was called), and focused on incremental
improvmeents instead of always running to the next design.

Would this have had a major impact on WWII, or just drawn it out by
a few months?

They should have known what projects are the one's that are going to
succeed. What if the jet engine would have been a dead end and no FW-190 or
better versions of ME-109 would have not been developed?

You're not thinking like a German nor of the Nazi distrust of rivals
that led to duplicity in designs.
When the Luftwaffe saw the first jet, the He-178, fly 4 days prior to
WW2 they were not impressed. Why should they suddenly produce a
tempermental untried machine when they had the Me-109?
When the war did start they were winning and all such jet projects
were delayed. Again, who needs a jet when you have the Fw-190?
As the war situation turned and deteriorated the Germans began to
experience round the clock bombing. This in turn led to almost every
concievable design proposal from the major aircraft producers, which
didn't like each other. Heinkel was despised by the Nazis while
Messerschmitt was praised. That's why the He-280 was rejected while
the Me-262 was selected instead. And to complicate matters worse, the
SS Scientific Branch had their own facilities and unconventional
aircraft- disc aircraft that sucked up a lot of manpower and
resources.
Then came the V-2 in 1944 and all chances for producing 20,000 more
fighters desperately needed to fight the increasing air battles was
lost. German pilots were not rotated and were forced to fight ever
increasing amounts of Allied material superiority in the skies over
the Reich. It was a gallant effort but no-win situation.
The jet engines then developed lacked better building materials and
needed overhauled or were ruined in 20 hrs. Advanced powerplants were
years away from proper introduction. Selection of a suitable fighter
jet took years as well as Hitler tried to turn all jet fighter
aircraft into bombers. And the fighters that did make it into combat
had to develop new strategies for fighting the escorts and still
manage to destroy the bombers.
The answer is No... even with the head start the German system,
Hitler, the SS, and engine technology couldn't have delivered anything
better sooner.

Rob
Sorry.