246 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 5 



date for adjournment of the Congress, Representative Roberts, 

 Smithsonian regent, had found it simpler to effect its adoption by 

 introducing the measure, as a rider to the Naval Appropriation Bill, in 

 the Committee on Naval Affairs, of which he was a member. 



Following is the provision in the Naval Appropriations Act, 

 approved March 3, 1915 : 



An Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is hereby established, and the Presi- 

 dent is authorized to appoint not to exceed twelve members, to consist of two 

 members from the War Department, from the office in charge of military aero- 

 nautics; two members from the Navy Department, from the office in charge 

 of naval aeronautics; a representative each of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 of the United States Weather Bureau, and of the United States Bureau of 

 Standards; together with not more than five additional persons who shall be 

 acquainted with the needs of aeronautical science, either civil or military, or 

 sliilled in aeronautical engineering or its allied sciences: Provided, That the 

 members of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as such, shall serve 

 without compensation : Provided further, That it shall be the duty of the Advis- 

 ory Committee for Aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the 

 problems of flight, with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the 

 problems * which should be experimentally attacked, and to discuss their solu- 

 tion and their application to practical questions. In the event of a laboratory 

 or laboratories, either in whole or in part, being placed under the direction of 

 the committee, the committee may direct and conduct research and experiment 

 in aeronautics in such laboratory or laboratories: And provided further. That 

 rules and regulations for the conduct of the work of the committee shall be 

 formulated by the committee and approved by the President. 



That the sum of $5,000 a year, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for 

 five years is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other- 

 wise appropriated, to be immediately available, for experimental work and 

 investigations undertaken by the committee, clerical expenses and supplies, 

 and necessary expenses of members of the committee in going to, returning 

 from, and while attending meetings of the committee : Provided, That an annual 

 report to the Congress shall be submitted through the President, including an 

 itemized statement of expenditures. 



This language establishing the NACA closely followed that used 

 by the British Prime Minister when he announced the formation of 

 a similar committee to the House of Commons on May 5, 1909, in the 

 following words: 



It is no part of the general duty of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 

 either to construct or to invent. Its function is not to initiate but to consider 

 what is initiated elsewhere, and is referred to it by the executive offices of the 

 Navy and Army construction departments. The problems which are likely to 

 arise in this way for solution are numerous, and it will be the work of the com- 

 mittee to advise on these problems and to seek their solution by the application 

 of both theoretical and experimental methods of research. 



The work desired thus falls into three sections: (1) The scientific study of 

 the problems of flight, with a mew to their practical solution. (2) Research 

 and experiment into these subjects in a properly equipped laboratory with a 



^ Italics in this and the following quotation supplied by the author for emphasis. 



