254 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 5 



tion of what should be done about the civil use of aircraft. Although 

 it would be nearly 8 years before the required Federal legislation was 

 adopted (the Air Commerce Act of 1926) , the recommendations made 

 by the Committee in 1918 encompassed what was needed: "Federal 



legislation governing the navigation of aircraft in the United 



States and including the licensing of pilots, inspection of machines, 



uses of landing fields, etc designed to encourage the 



development of aviation , and at the same time to guide the 



development along such lines as will render immediate and 



effective military service to the Nation in time of war." 



On April 1, 1921, President Harding directed the Committee to 

 meet with representatives of interested Government departments to 

 determine what could be done to achieve Federal regulation of air 

 navigation without legislative action, and what new legislation was 

 needed. April 9, the recommendations were formulated. The Com- 

 mittee was brief: "Federal regulation of air navigation cannot be 



accomplished under existing laws It is recommended that 



a Bureau of Aeronautics be established in the Department of Com- 

 merce." 



There were other NACA proposals in 1921 : That the Post Office 

 be authorized to extend its air-mail routes across the continent, and 

 that naval aviation activities be centered in a Bureau of Aeronautics 

 within the Navy Department. 



In its Annual Keport for 1921, the NACA noted the principal rea- 

 son for delay in passing the recommended legislation : 



The Committee is not unmindful of ttie legal sentiment that a constitutional 

 amendment should first be adopted before such legislation is enacted, on the 

 ground that effective regulation of air navigation as proposed would otherwise 

 be unconstitutional as violating the rights of property and encroaching upon the 

 rights of States. To postpone such legislation until a constitutional amendment 

 can be proposed and ratified would have the effect of greatly retarding the de- 

 velopment of commercial aviation, with no assurance that sufficient popular 

 interest would ever be aroused to accomplish such an amendment. The Com- 

 mittee is of the opinion that the most effective course to be followed for the 

 development of aviation would be first to enact the legislation deemed necessary 

 for the Federal regulation of air navigation and the encouragement of the develop- 

 ment of civil aviation, and let the question of the constitutionality of such legisla- 

 tion be tested in due course. In the meantime, there would be development in 

 civil and commercial aviation, and if eventually the legislation which made pos- 

 sible such development should be definitely determined to be unconstitutional 

 there would then, in all probability, be suflScient public interest in the subject and 

 popular demand to adopt an amendment to the Constitution. 



Years of perseverance culminated, in April 1926, in a careful an- 

 alysis by the Committee of fundamental differences of opinion respect- 

 ing certain aspects of the basic legislation then before the Congress. 

 The solutions then proposed by the NACA were accepted by the joint 



