German aviation's competing suppliers and centralized control

Germany's World War I aviation industry offered greater institutional variety than its World War II successor, in this interpretation. Several customers could request aircraft, and competing companies could develop different answers without a single centralized organization controlling the whole process. That arrangement gave firms such as Hansa-Brandenburg room to pursue their designs. Later control under Goring and Speer is judged more restrictive of engineering innovation, despite Nazi enthusiasm for advanced weapons. Heinkel's loss of control over his own company illustrates the conflict between a designer's independence and the regime's demands.