In its first fifty years as an independent armed service, the United States Air Force (USAF) has fostered science and technology and-in partnership with the private sector-developed and produced the complex tools of aerospace power that helped the Free World prevail in the Cold War. The foundation for these extraordinary achievements was laid in the forty years before the Air Force separated from the U.S. Army in 1947. This booklet tells the story of how the air components of the Army and then the USAF organized and managed the activities required to get aircraft and other weapon systems from the drawing board to the flightline or the launch pad. Published as one of a series of booklets celebrating the 50th anniversary of the USAF in 1997, this study is the first overall historical synopsis of the service's acquisition structure. The text was originally prepared as a chapter in the Air Force Acquisition Factbook, a compendium of acquisition programs and policies published by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition). Hence the study is intended both to educate personnel in today's acquisition community about their antecedents and to commemorate this aspect of the Air Force's heritage to a wider audience.