14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



Since the organization of the National Advisory Committee for 

 Aeronautics in 191 5, it has published 282 Technical Reports dealing 

 with original investigations conducted under its direct supervision 

 and, for the most part, in its own laboratories at Langley Field, 

 Virginia. In addition, it has issued 266 Technical Notes on what may 

 be called matters of secondary importance. No one can estimate the 

 value of these scientific papers to engineers,, designers and manu- 

 facturers. But there is a more important side to the matter. Each 

 of these papers was a distinct contribution to knowledge ; not a few 

 were of fundamental importance in the theory of aeronautics. In this 

 side of the Committee's work Doctor Walcott took keen interest; 

 not that he ever read the papers themselves, but he was eager to 

 know their content and to be told how they were received by those 

 competent to pass judgment on them. In a very real sense, too, 

 he inspired the men responsible for the research work, because they 

 knew that not alone was their reputation at stake, but his too, because 

 he was the Chairman under whom the laboratories operated. 



Not the least of Doctor Walcott's services to Aeronautics and to 

 the Committee was his insistence upon the location of the laboratories 

 of the Committee in the closest possible proximity to a fully equipped 

 aviation field. He secured the agreement of the army and navy to 

 a plan for a joint experimental field and proving ground for aircraft 

 upon which would be placed the research laboratory of the Com- 

 mittee, and he was Chairman of the committee for the selection of 

 the site. This ended in the establishment of what is now known as 

 Langley Field, a few miles from Hampton, Virginia. As plans finally 

 shaped themselves, the navy did not join in the project; but the 

 army has developed on this site one of their largest aviation posts, 

 and the Committee occupies an allotment on the field. The cooperation 

 between the Army Air Corps and the Committee has been close and 

 unbroken, and the importance of this in the latter's development cannot 

 be overemphasized. All this Doctor Walcott in some way foresaw. 

 This condition is unique in the world so far as governmental aero- 

 nautical research laboratories are concerned. 



Doctor Walcott watched with the deepest pleasure the expansion 

 of the Committee's laboratories at Langley Field ; the construction 

 of new pieces of equipment, new wind tunnels, new testing mecha- 

 nisms. He was gratified at the constantly widening scope of the 

 research problems, and at the ever increasing interest in these taken 

 by the army, the navy and the industry. 



The success of any institution, especially one under the government, 

 depends upon two factors. The more important is its personnel, 



