National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

First meeting in 1915, not including Walcott

Logo of NACA, year unknown

Not to be confused with the British Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, established 1909. This American organization might have been founded on the British model.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a twelve-member committee established by Congress on 3 March 1915, with guidelines for membership representing the military and civilian institutions connected with aeronautics. It had a $5000 budget plus travel expenses for the members; no salaries.

President Woodrow Wilson appointed the following members:

• Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven, chariman, Chief Signal Officer, War Department
• Naval Constructor Holden C. Richardson, secretary, U.S. Navy.
• Prof. Joseph Sweetman Ames, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• Captain Mark L. Bristol, Director of Naval Aeronautics, US Navy
• Prof. William F. Durand, PhD, Stanford University
• Prof. John F. Hayford, C. E., Northwestern University
• Prof. Charles F. Marvin, U.S. Weather Bureau
• Hon. Byron R. Newton, Treasury Department
• Prof. Michael Idvorsky Pupin, PhD, Columbia University
• Lt. Col. Samuel Reber, Signal Office, War Department
• Samuel W. Stratton, Sc. D., U.S. Bureau of Standards
• Charles D. Walcott, Sc. D., Smithsonian Institution

By October 1915, the Committee had taken the following actions, reported in Monthly Weather Review:

1. Contracted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a report on airplane stability, "which report was submitted by Naval Constructor Hunsaker and Professor Wilson" and models an airplane encountering a puff of wind
2. Contracted with Columbia University to report on engines, resulting in a submission by Prof. Charles E. Lucke
3. Contracted with the United States Rubber Company for investigation of different balloon fabrics. (The report found that application of spar varnish could reduce the friction of any fabric.)
4. Requested a report from Cornell University on engine mufflers, which was still forthcoming.
5. Received a voluntarily submitted report from John A. Roebling's Sons Company regarding wire terminals in airplane construction.
6. Began investigating the preparedness of various colleges, institutions, and manufacturers, for aeronautical experiments. Besides MIT, the University of Michigan and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are cited.
7. Found the Bureau of Standards "well equipped for carrying on all the investigations involving the determination of the physical factors entering into aeronautic design".
8. Found the Navy prepared to carry out wind tunnel experiments at the Washington Navy Yard.
9. Found the War Department prepared to carry out some experiments at its flying school in San Diego.
10. Found the Weather Bureau prepared to study the atmosphere in relation to aeronautics.
11. found the Smithsonian engaged in compiling a bibliography of aeronautics, and contributing funds to the work of a Weather Bureau subcommittee investigating the atmosphere in relation to aeronautics.

References

Organization names	National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Entity type
Country	US
Locations
Affiliated with
Scope	National
Started aero	1915
Ended aero
Keywords
Key people	Charles D. Walcott
Wikidata id	Q618604