However, the R&D activities at NACA were 

 stepped up shortly before the war and a concen- 

 trated effort during the war finally produced air- 

 craft superior to that of most competitors except 

 for the German jet fighters, which fortunately did 

 not become numerous before Germany was over- 

 run. "^o 



In the fall of 1944, General Arnold, Chief of 

 Staff of the Army Air Forces (AAF), recognized 

 that "the first essential of Air Power is preemi- 

 nence in research," and he formally constituted the 

 AAF Scientific Advisory Group, with Dr. Theo- 

 dore von Karman as chairman. Although Vannevar 

 Bush recommended to President Roosevelt that 

 postwar military research be under civilian control, 

 von Karman strongly and persuasively stated that 

 the Air Force (separated from the Army since 

 1947) should not delegate its research needs to any 

 other Federal agency. He warned that: 



. . . problems never have final or universal so- 

 lutions, and only a constant and inquisitive atti- 

 tude toward science and a ceaseless and swift 

 adoption of new developments can maintain the 

 security of this nation .... 



It was this philosophy which prevailed. 5' 



Air Force — Current Trends 



Air Force basic research policy since late 1974 

 can be summarized as follows: 



1. Research is a fundamentally important part 

 of the overall Air Force research and devel- 

 opment program and the preservation of the 

 quality of that program is of utmost impor- 

 tance. 



2. Research funding should be protected from 

 undue competition from development and 

 production programs. 



3. The primary emphasis of Air Force research 

 should be preservation and enhancement of 

 extramural capability to provide insight into 

 the basic science ... .52 



Estimated obligations for Air Force basic re- 

 search in 1977 are $82.6 million — $19.6 million for 

 physical sciences, $16.4 million for environmental 

 sciences, $8.0 million for mathematics, and $32.5 

 million for engineering.-''^ The Air Force operates 



'"Craven, W. F. and J. I,. Cole (eds). Army Air Forces in 

 World War II. Vol. Ill (Univ. of Chicago Press: Chicago. 

 1951), pp. 666. 7W-740. 



"Air Force communication to NSB staff, April 1977; the 

 quotation is from the von Karman report, "Toward New Hori- 

 zons," Washington, 1945. 



'•^See Part 1 of this report for complete statement of Air 

 Force basic research policy. 



^^ Federal Funds, Vol. XXVI, NSF77-3I7,TableC-34. 



14 in-house R&D laboratories/facilities and 4 

 FFRDC's, and carries out an extensive extramu- 

 ral basic research program chiefly through grants 

 to universities; but officials are concerned that 

 proposed legislation will, if passed, force the Air 

 Force to change means of support from grants to 

 contracts. In the major in-house laboratories, 

 about 7 percent of the research is basic. ^4 



Navy — Early History 



Although the Navy produced such innovative 

 weapons as the Truculent Turtle, a manually 

 powered submarine, during the Revolutionary 

 War, and Demologos, a steam propelled warship 

 in 1815, the Department's first significant basic 

 research project was not commenced until 1836. 

 In that year Secretary of War Poinsett selected 

 Lt. Charles Wilkes to command the United States 

 Exploring Expedition. He specified that the pur- 

 pose of the expedition was to "extend the bounds 

 of human knowledge."" In the course of the 4-year 

 expedition the naval officers were in charge of 

 hydrography, mapping, and magnetic and astro- 

 nomical observations; an outstanding team of ci- 

 vilian scientists conducted studies in ethnology, 

 anthropology, zoology, geology, meteorology, and 

 botany. Results came from Latin America, the 

 Antarctic, the Central Pacific Islands, and the 

 western coast of America. The report on the ex- 

 pedition was the culmination of the greatest scien- 

 tific publishing program undertaken by the Gov- 

 ernment before the Civil War; some of the charts 

 prepared from this report were still the best avail- 

 able in 1943 for military landings in the southwest 

 Pacific. 55 



For comparison with astronomical and magnetic 

 observations made on the expedition, Lt. James 

 M. Gillis of the Navy's Depot of Charts and In- 

 struments and William Cranch Bond of Dorches- 

 ter, Mass., were requested to make corresponding 

 observations at home. Bond became director of 

 the Harvard Observatory and Gillis created an 

 observatory at the Depot because it was needed 

 for calibrating chronometers as well as to support 

 the expedition. This became the Naval Observato- 

 ry, which is still charged with determining time for 

 the Nation. Of its creation, Dupree says: 



The Naval Observatory is the classic example 

 of the surreptitious creation of a scientific insti- 

 tution by underlings in the executive branch of 

 the government in the very shadow of congres- 

 sional disapproval. No more hated proposal 

 existed, and nowhere had more pains been tak- 

 en to prevent the creation of a new agency. Yet 



■^Air Force contribution to Part I, April 1977. 

 -'-^Dupree, pp. 56-61. 



COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 329 



