40 YEARS OF AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH — ^HUNSAKER 243 



Wright on his 1908 visit to France and Bleriot's 1909 cross-channel 

 flight, the British Prime Minister was moved to appoint an Advisory 

 Committee for Aeronautics with the great physicist Lord Rayleigh 

 as chairman. 



During this same period the United States made no special effort. 

 The Army SigTial Corps bought a few airplanes to train pilots and 

 the Navy set up a flying school equipped with Glenn Curtiss seaplanes. 

 When World War I erupted in 1914 it Avas reported that France had 

 1,400 airplanes, Germany 1,000, Russia 800, Great Britain 400, and the 

 United States 23 ! 



DRIVE FOR A NATIONAL LABORATORY 



The backward position of the United States in the application of 

 applied science to this new art was realized by a growing list of promi- 

 nent Americans who believed the situation was not only a national 

 disgrace, but a possible danger to our security. More Americans, in- 

 cluding the leaders in Congress, were strong for neutrality, and felt 

 that any special government concern with aeronautical development 

 might imply belligerent intentions. 



Capt. W. I. Chambers, USN, officer-in-charge of naval-aviation 

 experiments, proposed in 1911 that a national aeronautical research 

 laboratory be set up under the Smithsonian Institution. Along with 

 objections by both the War and Navy Departments, the plan was re- 

 ferred to President Taft's Committee on Economy and Efficiency, 

 from which it was never returned. 



Two men who were more influential in the drive for a national aero- 

 nautical laboratory were Alexander Graham Bell and Charles 

 Doolittle Walcott. The former, as a regent of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, had been a supporter of Langley and had experimented with 

 the lifting capabilities of kites. With Mrs. Bell he formed the Aerial 

 Experiment Association in 1907 to support the airplane experiments 

 of Glenn Curtiss, Lt. T. E. Selfridge, F. W. ("Casey") Baldwin, and 

 J. A. D. McCurdy. Their efforts resulted in the development of the 

 Curtiss biplanes and the use of ailerons to replace the Wrights' wing 

 warping for lateral control. 



Dr. Walcott was no aeronautical scientist; his field was geology. 

 But Dr. Walcott, as successor to Professor Langley as Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian, was determined that the Institution should resume its 

 position as a leader of aeronautical science in America. How better 

 than to have the new aeronautical laboratory attached to the 

 Smithsonian I 



The establishment of a national aeronautical laboratory was pressed 

 by members of the National Academy of Sciences, notably by Bell 

 and Walcott. The Academy had been created by Congress during 



