Alternative to the Manhattan Project?
Suppose Albert Einstein is killed before he is introduced to Georg Alexander Pick; so roughly around 1911. This will prevent Einstein from successfully formulating General Relativity and would turn the man we know today as "as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history" into a blip on the radar of history.
I believe the butterflies are not strong enough to flap away the Second World War, but may alter some minor details. Germany still goes Nazi lead by none other than Adolf Hitler after its loss in the Great War and the harsh treaty of Versailles. Most things go roughly the same up until 1942, when the Manhattan Project should have began in OTL.
Now, with the Manhattan Project costing $2 billion and employing 130,000 people, some of the smartest men in arguably the most powerful country in the world, what could the US do with an alternate allocation of resources. With the
opportunity cost (love those bolded two words in my economics textbook) being so colossal, we could see a much different end to the deadliest war in human history.
I'm not asking how many tanks
(price equivalent to 40,000 extra M4 Shermans, AFAIK) can be made, or how many floating fortresses
(price equivalent to over 25 Essex Class Aircraft Carriers) can be built with these funds, but instead wondering what kind of projects
could* be feasible to secure a victory for the United States of America and the allies.
*Note that I italicized "could", to emphasize the fact that I'm not asking what it
would do. Honestly, I believe that not much would change militarily with these extra funds, but would instead be used to further stimulate the economy. However, that is not the point of this thread.
So, in the year 1942, with the outcome of the war looking uncertain to the allies, what is the US capable of doing (preferably technologically) to prevent such a wretched future?
Could it:
Accelerate Battleship/Carrier/Aircraft Design to unimaginable levels?
Design its own version of the V2 Rockets?
Implementing Stealth Technology, similar to that sought after by the Philadelphia Experiment?
Experiment with mind control technology?
Anything else/use your imagination.
Contributions and 2¢ Donations Welcome
Thanks, Zach