Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/106

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 Air Force represents a four-told increase in appropria- tions for tarcraft procurement. There was a similar trend in legislation authorizing and granting the Air Force appropriations for the purchase of land and the construct]on of air bases and fac]litms m the United Staes and overseas, for pe½ial procure- merit, for research and development, and for other purposes related to procurement. Research and development had played an important part m the buffdrag up of American air power during World War !I. Smentific and technological advances dur- ing and after the war in such fields as atomic weapons, jet propulsion, and elec- troroes revolutiomzed mlitary avla1on and made research and development more portant than ever to the Air Force, particu- Iarly to those Air Force leaders and organizations concerned with the procure- ment of tarcraft and related material In 1945 General Arnold had emphamzed "the necesmty for continuous scientific research to ensure the maintenance of our natmnaI securlty and the peace of the World." He pointed out that this reqmred the achieve- ment of a high degree of organizatmn of post-war research, both wxthin and oukside of the setmaes, m order to ensure prepared- ness along techmcal lines and supremacy n the development of new weapons. In- deed, General Arnold said that he con- sidered pre-ermnence n research to be the first essentrot of adeq[uate air power. * The Air Force planners emphasized the mportance of such research and supported legislation for research purposes. As men- tinned above, the Air Force in ts program for the 80th Congress had proposed legisla- tion creating an Air Engineering Develop- ment Center. This research and develop- ment center was to be devoted to research, development, and evaluation studies in con- neckion w[th every conceivable aspect of the operation ef a,rcrafg, guided missiles, and thmr components m supersomc fhght. U1- tLmate plans called for a center (to be lo- cated at Camp Forrest m Tennessee) com- parable m magmtude wth Wright Fmld and patterned after such German research centers as Peenemunde and Oetzel. Also to be bufil were a large number of wind tun- nels and a series of laboratory fachties for carrying on all research, development, and evaluat[on studies pertaimng to the opera- tion of aircraft and guided missiles in the supersonic range. There was an urgent need for these famhtms since American aeronau- tical research m the fields of jet propulsion and high speed flight had lagged danger. ously behind that of Germany before and during World War II. Although the NACA was doing valuable work for the Air Force n this field, tt could not be depended upon to do all this work alone. ' The mportance of research and develop- ment, not only for the Air Force, but for the entire military establishment, was rec- ognized in he National Security Act of 1947, which prowdad for a Research and Development Board made up of a chairman, appointed by the President, and two rep- resentatives from each of the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who were appointed by the secretaries of their re- spective departments. Worlng under the direction of he eeretary of Defense, thi board was to prepare a complete and rote- grated program of research and develop- ment for military purposes, and to perform various adwsory, coordinating, and policy- making functmns with regard to research and developmentJ * In 1949 Congress acted on that part of the Air Force legrelative program which called for an air engineering development center; it passed a "double-barreled" act whmh authori.ed a unitary plan for the construcmn of transonto and supersome wind tunnel famhties and the establish- ment of an Ar Engineering Development Center Tins legislation was approved as Public Law 415, 81 Cont., i Sess. on 27 Ocrtuber 1949 and consisted of two parts; Title I which was entitled the "Unitary Wind Tunnel Plan Act of 1949," and Title II which consl,tuted the "Air Engineering Development Cener Act of 1949. "m Under Title I the NACA and the Secretary of De- fense were authorized to work together in the development of a plan for the construc- hon of wind tunnel facilities to be used ior the solution of research, development, and THIS PAGE Declasstried lAW EO12958