Thousands of aircraft and trained pilots, suspended from duty in the aftermath of the Second World War, found a place in civil aviation, thus paving the way to a the rapidly burgeoning commercial cargo and passenger transportation sector. The Cold War itself set the stage for the development of an unprecedented aircraft industry, offering employment for tens of millions of people from both ideological camps.

It is thanks to a fight for survival, in which all resources were mobilised, that aircraft design evolved from amateurism to professionalism, from technicality to scientism. Although Germany had been barred from developing defence technology capabilities following its defeat in the First World War, it visibly surpassed others in terms of R&D and new conceptual design. Arado, a hardly known brand in aircraft production, developed 22 prototypes bearing perhaps the characteristics today’s aircraft, during 1943-1944 when Germany’s fall was on the horizon. Germany, which probably benefited from the advanced aircraft production expertise of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and France after their invasion, was having troubles at the time producing or flying its aircraft on account of materiel and fuel shortages.