US Government Supported Innovations 

The two sectors of American manufacturing that are world class competitors are computers and aerospace.  Both of these sectors are and have been heavily funded and guided by the US government, mostly for the military, since their inception.  Some of the technologies that have been developed and capitalized wholly or in large part by the US government, in at least their initial stages of development, include:

Technology Developed and/or Supported	By Whom for What Purpose
Computers & Computer Software	Military-Targeting, Code Breaking, Aircraft and Nuclear Weapons Design
Microchips	Military-Onboard Computers for Missile Guidance
Internet	Military-Arpanet
Digital Imaging	Military-Spy Satellites
Jet Engines	Military-WW2
Rockets	Military-ICBMs
Satellites	Military-Cold War
Nuclear Power	Military-Manhattan Project, Naval Propulsion
Airplanes	Military-The Wright Bros first big sale was to the US Army; WW1 and WW2.  The US govt. kept the aviation industry alive in the interwar years with military contracts and airmail contracts.
Radio (One spin-off of which is TV)	Military-Ship-to-Shore Communication and Antiaircraft Targeting
Radar (one spin-off is microwave ovens)	Military-WW2
Penicillin	Military-WW2
Synthetic Rubber	Military-WW2 – Substitute for Natural Rubber from Indonesia due to Japanese occupation
All of the NASA spinoffs	NASA/Military
Computer Aided Drafting & Design (CADD)	Military-Air Force
Photocopiers	Military – Haloid Corp (later called Xerox) received a big contract from the Pentagon which was overwhelmed with the need to copy large numbers of documents.
Telegraph	In 1843 Samuel Morse received a $30,000 ($1MM in 2013) federal appropriation to pay for construction of a 40 mile demonstration line between Baltimore and Washington DC.

Also worth mentioning are the inventions from Bell Laboratories.  Bell Labs was set up by Bell Telephone which was a government sanctioned and government regulated monopoly.  Bell Labs was financed by a government mandated portion of Bell’s profit stream.  Bell Labs inventions include:

Semiconductors/Transistors

Lasers

Loudspeakers

Stereo Recording and Playback

Cell phones

Solar Cells

Data Networking

Taken together these inventions and their derivatives define our modern world and distinguish it from what came before the 20^th century (though the Telegraph is a 19th century invention I decided to add it for emphasis).

Also, the government financed and regulated the roads, airports and the air traffic control system, making the auto and commercial aviation industries possible, and regulated the broadcast spectrum making wireless broadcasting economically viable.