You've got to be kidding me Koolkitty!
In terms of metallurgy the Germans were well ahead throughout WW2, and they continue to be so till this day. The problem bugging the German Jet program was a lack of the necessary expensive metals needed to solve the reliability problems bugging their Jet engines. The Germans knew exactly what they needed to make their engines even more powerful reliable, problem was however that it wasn't in big enough a supply, as much had to be used for other projects.
What other projects took such a 'high priority' that turbine blade improvement retarded their best channce to attain parity in the air? As contrast with knowing what to do and having the technology to dit?
I also strongly disagree with your false theory that the US would've been ahead had they showed interest earlier on. Fact is Germany possessed better educated engineers aerodynamicists right from the start of the war, and they were well ahead in both fields from the beginning till the end (Hence the performance they managed to achieve with the Me-262 design) In fact the Germans have been ahead in aerodynamics all the way back since 1904 and up until the end of the 2nd world war. All of this mainly thanks to the fact that all of the ground breaking research before and during WW2 was carried out at the laboratory of Ludwig Prandtl at Göttingen, which was the main center of theoretical and mathematical aerodynamics and fluid dynamics research in the world from soon after 1904 to the end of WW2. This is where the term boundary layer was coined as-well as the place where modern mathematical aerodynamics was founded.
???? Facts Soren? The giants in theoretical Aero were primarily Theodorsen (Norwegian born, naturalized US), Whitcomb, Von Karman (Hungarian/US) and a couple of others - but all were making major contributions to shock wave theory, aeroelasticity, propeller aero, boundary layer theory and area rule shape theory - starting in the 1920s in the example of Theodorsen
Interesting, Theodorsen was a common base study for Fluid Mechanics and Intro Aero for me - and certainly provided the basis for transforming lift distribution and moment to an airfoil section from a revloving cylinder. It is the first example of a Complex Variable transformation that I am aware of and the only possible 'German theoretician (name) other than Von Karman that was even mentioned in literature or course work.
Most of the theoretical aero (including wake turbulence and boundary layer theory) for laminar flow were American and Brit - The Germans contributed exactly zero on modern aerodynamic finite element modelling through my own Masters and early (not completed) PhD studies on Aero in 1960's. We wer whores for best results in math, aero and physical modelling - Germans Russians and Brits were OK with us.
This is when computers were first introduced and ANY Theroetical basis from ANY source including German or Russian was important. E.g the Stealth technology from a signal attenuation contect was extracted from Russian theoretical paper in Signal Theory Math back in early 80's.
Who are you proposing as 'best German theoreticians and what breakthroughs are you suggesting here?
The laboratory first lost its dominance after the war when the researchers were dispersed.
Soren, I leave you alone for a couple of weeks and you slither back with some really bold claims - how do you define 'dominance'? and how do you base term 'best engineers' and how do you provide sources and facts to back these claims up?