Political Disfavor
It seemed natural that Burnelli would be among those chosen to build the warplanes needed for the defense build-up in the years before Pearl Harbor and then for the sudden war effort. In September 1939, Gen. "Hap" Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Corps, made an impassioned plea to his boss, the Secretary of War, that concluded: "In my opinion, it is essential, in the interest of national defense, that this procurement [for Burnelli aircraft] be authorized." Yet, after Burnelli's design had won three Army competitions for warplanes, the Burnelli procurement, which might have changed aviation history, was not to be.

A secret September 1941 Army Air Corps panel, after contradicting all of the positive statements the Corps (and NACA) had made previously, recommended that "the Air Corps inform both the Central Aircraft Corporation and V. J. Burnelli Airplanes, Inc., and any other concern which may later possibly become interested in the Burnelli lifting fuselage,' that this design is of no interest to the Air Corps. and that for this reason no further correspondence, consultations, or reviewing of data embodying this design will ever again be considered by the Air Corps or the Materiel Division."

What happened between September 1939 and September 1941 to turn Burnelli from favorite into pariah? Burnelli chief engineer Charles Mullen described Burnelli's meeting with President Roosevelt at which FDR was to sign a directive for the procurement of Burnelli planes. When Roosevelt heard that Burnelli's financial backer was one Arthur Pew of Sun Oil Co., he was said to have thrown his pen across the room and ordered Burnelli and his group out, stating that he would do nothing to help that backer of Wendell Willkie's campaign for the Presidency.