40 YEARS OF AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH- -HUNSAKER 245 



cated by Sir Horace Darwin's Cambridge scientific instrument shops. 



Dr. Zahm's report, published by the Smithsonian in 1914, made 

 clear the width of the gap between European and American positions 

 in aeronautical science. This report had an important influence on the 

 decision of the Smithsonian regents in 1915 to memorialize the Con- 

 gress once again on the subject of a national aeronautical laboratory. 



Woodrow Wilson approved the Smithsonian plan of reopening 

 Langley's laboratory with representatives of the War, Navy, Agricul- 

 ture, and Commerce Departments serving on an iVdvisory Committee. 

 However, the Comptroller ruled that, under an Act of 1909, such an 

 Advisory Committee could not serve without the authority of the 

 Congress. 



On December 10, 1914, the Chancellor of the Smithsonian, Chief 

 Justice Wliite, appointed Dr. Alexander Graham Bell ; Senator Wil- 

 liam J. Stone of Missouri; Eepresentative Ernest W. Eoberts of 

 Massachusetts, and John B. Henderson, Jr., regents; and Dr. Walcott, 

 Secretary, to consider once again "questions relative to the Langley 

 Aerodynamical Laboratory." On February 1, 1915, a "memorial on 

 the need for a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics" was 

 delivered to the Speaker of the House. Pertinent sentences from the 

 memorial follow : 



This country led in the early development of heavier-than-air ma chines. 

 Today it is far behind. ... A National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 

 cannot fail to be of inestimable service in the development of the art of aviation 

 in America. Such a committee, to be effective, should be permanent and attract 

 to its membership the most highly trained men in the art of aviation. . . . 

 Through the agency of subcommittees the main advisory committee could avail 

 itself of the advice and suggestions of a large number of technical and practical 

 men. . . . The aeronautical committee should advise in relation to the work 

 of the Government in aeronautics and the coordination of the activities of gov- 

 ernmental and private laboratories, in which questions concerned with the study 

 of the problems of aeronautics can be experimentally investigated. 



The Navy heartily endorsed the idea in a letter dated February 12 

 and signed by Franklin D. Eoosevelt as Acting Secretary. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NACA 



The Joint Resolution establishing the Advisory Committee and 

 authorizing the President to appoint its 12 members was given final 

 form in February. The people of the United States were at the time 

 generally anxious to avoid involvement in what was then called the 

 War in Europe. President Wilson is said to have felt that the estab- 

 lislunent of a new aeronautical enterprise might reflect on American 

 neutrality. Such reasoning may explain why the Resolution was at- 

 tached to the Naval Appropriation Bill ; perhaps a more likely reason 

 was that in the rush to clear the legislative "log jam" by March 4, the 



