Weren't all that strong technologically speaking. The UK, France and Germany were far ahead of us. But we had the resources to manufacture like crazy.

So as a last ditch effort to not lose the war, the Allies sent all their highly engineered drawings, hoping the ship wouldn't get sunk by German U-boats along the way [which was a very real risk].

Once we had the designs, it sparked a technology run like no other. It firmly put the USA at the top of the world food chain. We haven't relinquished that position ever since. But I must say that China is trying hard to replace us at the top.