12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



These matters may be made clearer and Doctor Walcott's f arsighted 

 wisdom may be better understood if a chronology is introduced, for 

 times and seasons have an important part in the history of any idea. 

 From the time when Doctor Walcott became Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in succession to Samuel P. Langley, he was in- 

 terested in aeronautics, desiring specially to reopen the aeronautic 

 laboratory of the Institution. He realized the need, however, of 

 obtaining government grants for its support and did not see his way 

 to securing them. He had formed a committee to advise him, but 

 soon disbanded it. Then the Great War came, and with it the realiza- 

 tion of the existence of a new weapon, and, in fact, a new military 

 arm. It was also realized by a few that those countries which had 

 studied aeronautics scientifically were at a great advantage with 

 reference to those countries which had not. Doctor Walcott was one 

 of these few ; and so strongly did he feel the need of this country 

 beginning such work that he secured the passage in 191 5 of an enabling 

 act establishing the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 

 the bill being immediately signed by the President. The essential 

 features of this legislation were the constitution of the Committee, 

 its members serving without compensation ; the statement of its duties 

 as an advisory body ; and its freedom of action, subject only to the 

 President. 



At the organization meeting of the Committee Doctor Walcott was 

 elected Chairman of the Executive Committee, a position which he 

 filled till T919, when he was elected Chairman of the Main Committee. 

 He honored the Committee by remaining its Chairman till his death. 



In 191 5 the question of preparedness for war was uppermost in 

 the minds of everyone, specially those responsible for the state of the 

 army and the navy. Doctor Walcott made himself familiar, by con- 

 versation, by study and by correspondence, with the existing situation 

 so far as aircraft were concerned, and with the needs and plans of the 

 two military arms of the nation ; and, then, as the day of our own 

 entry into the war was seen to be approaching rapidly, he called, in 

 the name of the Committee, a series of conferences with those in- 

 terested in the construction of airplanes, conferences which are of 

 historic importance, because it is as a result of them that the airplane 

 industry is in the condition it is today, and that the army and navy 

 are as well equipped as they are. 



To the first of these conferences representatives of the aircraft and 

 aircraft engine industry were invited to meet with the Executive 

 Committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. 

 The needs of the army and navy were stated fully, and the repre- 



