Rudderless

Aviation Week & Space Technology 03/07/05
author: Frank Morring, Jr.

NASA is attempting to absorb a 40% cut in its aircraft technology-development programs without a clear national aeronautics policy to guide it--leaving the door open to parochial logrolling as the agency mothballs wind tunnels to achieve the new deep-space focus ordered by President Bush.

With the drumbeat growing on Capitol Hill to save constituent jobs threatened by the shrinking aeronautics accounts, the official in charge of managing the shrinkage says he needs a little more guidance to do the job right.

"I think we need a dialogue leading to a national policy," says J. Victor Lebacqz, associate administrator for aeronautics.

Lebacqz says whoever Bush appoints to run NASA should try to generate a consensus on what should be the space agency's role inside the atmosphere. Such a consensus would be comparable to the one that has developed behind the White House space exploration vision coordinated by former Administrator Sean O'Keefe, who resigned and left the agency last month.

The Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., both face sharp cutbacks growing out of reductions in aeronautics spending under the Bush administration's Fiscal 2006 budget request. Langley is bracing for the loss of 1,000 jobs, while Glenn managers estimate a reduction of 700 (AW&ST Feb. 14, p. 37).

"To cut these programs would seriously undermine America's ability to compete militarily and commercially as the next generation of aircraft is developed," said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), in a fairly typical reaction to the budget request. House Science Committee members plan a hearing on NASA aeronautics issues this month that's likely to include the future of agency wind tunnels and other ground test facilities.