Page images
PDF
EPUB

Fiscal year 1944 estimates (as approved by Bureau of the Budget)

[blocks in formation]

1 Gust tunnel. $60,000-cash appropriation requested.

2 Cash appropriation requested-balance of authorized limit of cost of $16,207,500.

[blocks in formation]

500,000 150,000

15, 672,000 15,000

160,000 2 3,707, 500

3,767,500

19, 454, 500

Increase, fiscal year 1944 over 1943

[blocks in formation]

Analysis of appropriations and estimates, fiscal years 1943 and 1944

[blocks in formation]

Organization of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.-The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics consists of 15 members appointed by the President, including 2 representatives each of the War and Navy Departments, 1 representative each of the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Weather Bureau, and the National Bureau of Standards, and 2 representatives of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, together with 6 members from private life. All the members serve as such without compensation.

OBJECTIVES

1. Conduct under unified control in Government laboratories of basic and applied research in aeronautics, including (a) confidential researches on urgent problems for the Army and Navy; (b) fundamental researches to increase performance, efficiency, and safety of aircraft, military and civil.

2. Advise War and Navy Departments, Civil Aeronautics Administration, and the aviation industry as to improvements to be made in airplane design to increase speed, range, capacity, maneuverability, safety, and general efficiency of American aircraft.

3. Coordinate the research needs of aviation, stimulate activity in educational institutions, and prevent duplication in the field of aeronautical research.

4. Consider merits of aeronautical inventions submitted by the public to any agency of the Government.

5. On request of the President, the Congress, or any executive department, to advise upon any special problem in aeronautics which may be referred to it.

Plan of work.-In order to carry out effectively its chief function of the supervision, conduct, and coordination of aeronautical research, the Committee has established four principal technical committees-the Committees on Aerodynamics, Power Plants for Aircraft, Aircraft Materials, and Aircraft Structures, and under these 19 subcommittees. These technical committees prepare and recommend to the executive committee programs of research in their respective fields, and as a result of the nature of their organization, which includes representation of the various agencies concerned with aeronautics, they act as coordinating agencies, providing effectively for the interchange of information and ideas and the prevention of duplication. There are 233 members on the Committee's total complement of standing technical subcommittees, 111 members representing governmental agencies, and 122 representing organizations outside the Government.

Aeronautical science is advancing more rapidly at this time than any other technological field. In view of the many developments in air warfare, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics has intensified its effort with the Army and the Navy during the fiscal year 1942 to improve the performance of fighting airplanes. The activities of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics are wide in scope and directly affect all of the more than 200,000 airplanes to be built in this country in the next 2 years.

For improvements in high speed, the actual airplane is usually tested in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics full-scale wind tunnel. Other aerodynamic characteristics, such as airfoil sections for wings, general arrangement of design, stability, control, wing stallings, spinning, engine cooling, and propellers, are investigated in the Committee's high-speed, pressure, and atmospheric wind tunnels. Water performance of flying boats is investigated in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics tank. Flying qualities of airplanes are improved as a result of flight research by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Special problems on service airplanes such as engine and supercharger installations, gun arrangements in wings and turrets, ground looping, and many other phases of technical development are studied.

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics improvements in airplane performance, efficiency, and safety are applied to new and advanced designs and also to airplanes already in production. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is constantly releasing technical reports and arranging conferences with the Army, the Navy, and the airplane and engine manufacturers to secure prompt and effective application of the latest knowledge acquired.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is engaged 100 percent on urgent problems for the Army and Navy. All the work is directed toward helping to win the war. The problems submitted by the Army and the Navy are of vital importance and the answers are urgently needed. The Langley and Ames Laboratories are working on a partial three-shift basis. The construction of the engine laboratory at Cleveland, Ohio, will be substantially complete by January 1, 1943. The volume and pressure of work at all laboratories will require an extension of three-shift operations. The estimates for 1944 contemplate an increase in personnel of approximately 64 percent, and an increase in general expenses of approximately 100 percent; $60,000 for new construction at Langley Field, Va., and $3,707,500, the balance of the contract authorization for the construction of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory at Moffett Field, Calif.

Public Law 450, approved February 10, 1942, authorized overtime compensation for National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics employees in the field service. Overtime compensation limited to pay for 8 hours per week and amounting to approximately 21.6 percent of base pay has been paid to such employees since March 16, 1942. It will be necessary for the Committee shortly to submit supplemental estimates for 1943 to finance overtime compensation and to meet other urgent needs which have arisen since the 1943 estimates were submitted several months before Pearl Harbor.

The Committee's present overtime law expires June 30, 1943. It has operated to the great advantage of the Government in getting more work done and in helping to hold the personnel in the face of greatly increased earning opportunities in private employment. It is understood that a general overtime law affecting the whole Federal service is under consideration in Congress. Accordingly, the estimates for the fiscal year 1944 do not include an item for overtime compensation under the Committee's existing authority. The Comittee welcomes such general legislation even though it may be limited in its application. If,

however, such general legislation be not enacted, the Committee will be forced by circumstances to request an extension of its present overtime law.

The Selective Service Act has naturally greatly interfered with the efficient functioning of the organization. The Committee has cooperated understandingly with the Selective Service Administration and the latter has been somewhat sympathetic in its consideration of the Committee's personnel problems. The indirect results of the Selective Service Act have had a much more serious effect on the Committee's research organization than the direct operation of the act. For example, at Langley Field, 45 employees were inducted between January 1 and June 30, 1942, but the total loss of male personnel during that period was 270. The evident unrest and uncertainty in the Committee's male employees of military service age lowers the effectiveness of the country's whole air program. The Committee is therefore working on plans with the Army and Navy to give a reasonable degree of stability to the Committee's research organization in the national interests.

The Committee is hiring women not only to replace men but to meet current needs for expansion in many lines. The Committee, in its employment policy, seeks to avoid the employment of potential 1-A men or does so with the distinct reservation that requests for deferment will not be made. In the professional field, however, it is necessary to employ potential 1-A men and also in the mechanical field. With the reduction in the draft-age limit from 20 to 18, it will be absolutely essential to work out a new policy to insure a reasonable degree of effectiveness in the conduct of the Committee's vital work for the Army and Navy.

The Committee recommends the removal of the limitation on travel expenses. No useful purpose in aid of the war effort is served by the limitation. The Committee has always been sparing and economical in the authorization of travel. Now that the country is at war additional subcommittees have been organized and others enlarged. From necessity more meetings must be held. There must be more visits to aircraft factories and to other research laboratories by Committee personnel. Whereas there were 30 meetings of technical committees held during the first 6 months of the fiscal year of 1942 and 45 meetings held in the second 6 months, an increase of 50 percent, the currently approved schedule calls for 98 meetings during the fiscal year 1943 with every indication that there will be need for more rather than for less meetings during the fiscal year 1944. The general enlargement of the organization and the greater pressure of work also will require additional travel.

It is desired to have authority, not to exceed $2,500 at not to exceed $50 per diem, to hire specialists as consultants without regard to the civil-service laws or the Classification Act. There have been occasions in the past when the Committee has been embarrassed in seeking to obtain, for brief periods and without compensation, the services of certain experts who could not afford to serve without pay.

Detailed explanations and justification of the fiscal year 1944 estimates are presented on the following pages.

HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

At the Committee's headquarters at 1500 New Hampshire Avenue NW., Washington, D. C., are held nearly all of the Committee and subcommittee meetings. Research programs are discussed and recommended by the subcommittees and approved by the main Committee and the research work of the organization in accordance with the approved programs is directed from the executive offices. Coordination of research activities by means of effective liaison service with scientific and educational institutions, aircraft and allied industries, and with agencies of the Federal Government concerned with aeronautics is also carried out under direction of the staff at the Committee's headquarters. This work also includes supervision of the program of expanding research with university and college laboratories as outlined under "Special contracts for research in educational institutions."

The administrative supervision and business management of the organization is also conducted in the headquarters' office. This includes direction of the Committee's personnel, supply and equipment procurement programs, maintenance of administrative and financial records, fiscal, and budgetary control, and direction of the Committee's construction program.

At the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics headquarters there is located also the Office of Aeronautical Intelligence, which serves as the depository and distributing agency for the scientific and technical information collected by the Committee from governmental and private agencies in this country and abroad. Included in the data distributed are confidential, restricted, and unclassified series of publications covering the results of fundamental researches conducted at the three major field stations of the Committee and similar data collected by the Committee from governmental and private agencies and educational institutions. Several series of advance confidential and advance restricted reports are issued to the Army and the Navy, and to their contractors for military aircraft, engines, and accessories. Because of the war and at the request of the Army and the Navy, the technical reports, in printed form, and the technical notes, in mimeographed form, issued since June 1, 1940, have been placed in a restricted status, and their distribution has been limited to Government agencies and others, on an approved list, who are concerned with the information.

Funds in the amount of $343,181 have been allocated for the Committee's headquarters office for the fiscal year 1943. This amount is already proving inadequate and it will accordingly be necessary to request additional funds in a supplemental appropriation for the fiscal year 1943.

In the fiscal year 1944 a total of 155 employees will be required effectively to meet the work load of this office due to the greatly expanded activities of the Committee's laboratories. This amounts to an increase of 23 employees over the presently authorized complement of 132. Existing space limitations will require two-shift operation of some divisions of the headquarters' office. Travel funds in the amount of $80,500 will be required in the fiscal year 1944. This estimate has been prepared on the following basis: Attendance at meetings by Committee and subcommittee members. Miscellaneous travel performed by Committee and subcommittee members

Official travel of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics headquarters staff (includes $7,000 for travel required by coordination activities including travel required in connection with supervision of program outlined under “Special contracts for research in educational institutions") -

Attendance at meetings of professional and technical societies.

Total_

$60,000

4,000

15,000 1,500

80, 500

No increases are requested for transportation, communication, or repairs, and alterations. An increase of $1,000 will, however, be necessary for supplies and materials; $3,000, a reduction of $9,000 under the 1943 allotment will be required for the purchase of necessary office equipment.

SPECIAL CONTRACTS FOR RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Objective. In order to expand the country's capacity for aeronautical research the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is supporting a carefully selected group of research projects in schools and universities that are properly equipped and properly staffed to carry on such work. These projects are supplemental to work carried out in the laboratories of the Committee and by the Army and the Navy in their own facilities.

Significance. For many years certain countries in Europe have supplemented the extensive work done in Government-controlled laboratories by utilizing to the full all equipment and all talent that existed in their schools and universities. Many valuable contributions to aeronautics have come from such sources. In 1940 the National Advisory Committee for Aeronauticss supported a limited number of small projects, but it became evident that a great deal could be accomplished by extending the work further. The coordination office of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was established in January 1940, to investigate the resources of university laboratories and utilize them to the fullest possible extent in connection with the national defense program. Of the fiscal year 1941 appropriation which became available July 1, 1940, $120,000 was made available for this purpose and of the fiscal year 1942 appropriation, $300,000. Out of the 1942 appropriation, contracts were written for 21 projects in aerodynamics, totaling $109,740; 8 projects in air

« PreviousContinue »