Cold War aviation

American technology transfer and the construction of Turkey's first international civilian airport in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, 1944–1953

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7170232
AutoresT E Tunc (0000-0002-2922-3916, Hacettepe University, autor de correspondencia), Gokhan Tunc (0000-0002-8307-1060, Atilim University)
Año2025
Volumen58
Número3
Páginas463-482
Fecha de publicación2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0007087424001225
PMID39676635
OpenAlexW4405453637
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas28

With the economic and political support of the United States, in July 1947, Turkey signed contracts with the Westinghouse Electric International Company and J.G. White Engineering Corporation to construct its first international civilian airport, Istanbul's Yeşilköy Airport. As this article will argue, the building of Yeşilköy (1949–53), through a partnership with two American engineering firms, is essentially an early Cold War narrative of transnational exchange involving the multidirectional flow of technical knowledge, expertise and resources between the United States and Turkey; the circulation of geopolitically significant (and frequently competing) military, civilian and government actors; and the local and global implications of these transmissions. Yet the Yeşilköy construction narrative also illustrates how post-war technology transfer was a highly political process of constant adaptation, modification and negotiation. Fraught with unforeseen friction and thorny challenges, Yeşilköy exemplifies the complicated American Cold War strategy of creating and maintaining alliances through engineering knowledge, personnel and practices, often with unintended consequences. Moreover, as a case study, Yeşilköy opens a new window into the cautious science diplomacy that occurred along the Iron Curtain, while filling a notable historiographic gap with respect to aviation in early Cold War Turkey

Aviation · Aviation law · Civil aviation · Cold war · Diplomacy · General partnership · Narrative · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Engineering · International Science and Diplomacy · Law · Space exploration and regulation · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments