124 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



pensive and complicated investigation with the spectrobolometer, to 

 take a part in observing the variability of the sun. 



The Langley Aerodynamical Laboratory. — At the annual meeting 

 of the Board of Regents held December 9, 1915, the Secretary re- 

 ported that authority for the appointment by the President of an 

 Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been granted March 3, 

 1915, and that the advisory committee has been appointed, and 

 further that — 



In view of the scope and organization of the National Advisory Committee 

 for Aeronautics, it is not deemed probably that the Smithsonian Institution will 

 find It necessary to establish an areodynamical laboratory for experimental 

 purposes. 



In the act approved August 29, 1916, making appropriations for 

 the naval service for the fiscal year 1917, there is appropriated for 

 the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics $85,000 in addition to the 

 sum of $5,000 previously provided. This appropriation is for the 

 necessary expenses of the committee and for experimental work, in- 

 vestigations, and publications. 



In the same act there is also appropriated $3,500,000 for aviation; 

 and in the Army appropriation act, also approved August 29, 1916, 

 there is made available for the same purpose the sum of $13,281,666. 



Your Secretary, as chairman of the executive committee of the 

 National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, has given consid- 

 erable time and thought to the development of aviation in connection 

 with the needs of the Government. Many meetings of the commit- 

 tee have been held and visits made to the principal plants where 

 there was a prospect of the development and manufacture of aircraft 

 and motors. 



The present prospect is exceedingly favorable for the manufacture 

 in quantity of an efficient aircraft motor at plants in New Jersey, 

 Boston, Detroit, and Buffalo. 



It may be of interest to state that the biplane is the standard air- 

 plane at present, and there is an immediate prospect that high- 

 powered biplanes and possibly triplanes will be largely used where 

 great speed and climbing power are essential. 



An allotment of $2,500 for the study of problems of the atmos- 

 phere in relation to aeronautics has been made in connection with the 

 United States Weather Bureau to provide for the beginning of an 

 investigation which will ultimately result in the mapping of the 

 atmosphere over the United States and adjoining areas up to a height 

 of 20,000 feet. 



It is anticipated that the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in 

 cooperation with the War and Navy Departments, will at an early 

 date have facilities for directing experimentation and investigations at 

 suitably equipped aviation grounds, or laboratories, as a plat of land 



