crash program

American  

noun

1. a plan of action entailing rapid and intensive production, growth, or the like, undertaken to meet a deadline or solve a pressing problem.

   a crash program to develop a new fighter plane.

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Etymology

Origin of crash program

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

“We need a crash program for a high-low mix in munitions,” including offensive fires and interceptors, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker said at a recent hearing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026

In the early 1980s, he led the fight against a crash program to map all human genes, fearing, once again, unknown consequences.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025

Manhattan Project, the World War II–era crash program to build the first-ever atomic bombs.

From Scientific American • Jul. 21, 2023

Bright says he lobbied for a crash program to make COVID-19 vaccines—a pandemic “Manhattan Project”—which Navarro spelled out in a memo on 9 February 2020 to the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 6, 2022

This led to the formation of a microwave committee with Loomis as chairman and Lawrence as a member, and in turn to the NDRC’s subsequent decision to establish a crash program at MIT.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik