Other examples (which I learned about from a speech by Steven Chu) include aviation, which supposedly didn't get far in the US until the Postal Service started subsidizing air travel with air mail :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_mail#The_United_States
US railroads in the 1800's got not just physical security from the feds, but also directly subsidized:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Act
Plus there was NASA's predecessor, NACA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACA
<quote> In 1922, NACA had 100 employees. By 1938, it had 426. In addition to formal assignments, staff were encouraged to pursue unauthorized "bootleg" research, provided that it was not too exotic. The result was a long string of fundamental breakthroughs, including "NACA engine cowl" (1930s), the "NACA airfoil" series (1940s), and the "area rule" for supersonic aircraft (1950s). On the other hand, NACA's 1941 refusal to increase airspeed in their wind tunnels set Lockheed back a year in their quest to solve the problem of compressibility in the P-38. <unquote>
The question should perhaps be: which successful technologies *weren't* on the public tit?
Not scholarly, but they should provide a starting point.
On that note, does anybody know of a history of the gummint takeover of the economy during WW2? It was essentially central planning, at least on the industrial side, right?
-- Andy