40 YEARS OP AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH — ^HUNSAKER 271 



necessary for economy. Furthermore, higher-speed airplanes tend to 

 require longer runways and bigger airports. This could mean a new 

 program of airport building at colossal expense, with the new airports 

 even farther from the passengers' ultimate destination. Getting to 

 and from the airport could consume more time than is saved by faster 

 flight. Kesearch continues on improving landing and takeoff char- 

 acteristics of airliners. 



It may be that airliners of the future will be designed to the limita- 

 tions of the airports they are to serve, just as transatlantic steamers 

 are designed to enter only a few major seaports, where the channel 

 and piers have adequate depth of water. 



Civil aeronautics can make its greatest contribution to trade and 

 commerce under a favorable international climate of free interchange 

 of people, goods, and ideas. Greater economy, efficiency, and safety 

 are prerequisites for its full utilization. Research can show the way 

 to advance toward these goals. 



Through the years the NACA has been provided by Congress with 

 the most modern research equipment at a total cost of approximately 

 300 million dollars, and the present operating staff numbers about 

 7,600 persons of whom over 2,000 have professional degrees. These 

 resources, in the present hostile and threatening international climate, 

 are directed for the most part toward research helpful to national 

 security. Research to improve military aircraft is ultimately applied 

 to civil aviation, when proved to be thoroughly practical by experience, 

 but there are differences in emphasis, because safety, comfort, and 

 economy are relatively more important in civil airplanes. The Com- 

 mittee has numerous investigations in progress which are directed 

 toward the immediate problems of civil aviation, as for example the 

 work on noise, icing, fire prevention, atmospheric turbulence, and 

 reduction of landing speed. 



A more favorable international climate would permit greater em- 

 phasis on civil aviation, but it is likely that for some time to come the 

 national security will require a great effort to penetrate more rapidly 

 into the vast region of the unexplored and unknown. The Committee 

 feels its responsibility for guidance of the over-all research effort in 

 aeronautics, and it is hoped that through its work aeronautics may 

 make the maximum possible contribution to human welfare. 



