Sec. 401. Sense of Congress on NASA aeronautics
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Congress finds that— aviation is vital to the United States economy, with the industry supporting nearly 1,000,000 jobs, conducting nearly 10,000,000 commercial flights per year within the United States alone, and contributing to the aerospace industry’s positive trade balance in 2012; in helping test and mature new technologies for quiet and efficient air transportation, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate addresses major aviation trends, such as the rapid growth in passengers, increasing fuel costs, and the demand for faster vehicles; the Directorate works closely with industry and academia to address long-term challenges to the air transportation system that require improving aviation safety, increasing the capacity of the increasingly crowded national airspace system, and reducing environmental impacts; through its Aeronautics Test Program, the Directorate manages the flight operations and test infrastructure at 4 NASA centers, providing both NASA and its industry partners with access to critical facilities;
NASA’s contribution to aeronautics is evidenced in the use of its technologies in almost every modern aircraft; and the Directorate has identified otherwise unknown safety issues and helped optimize aircraft routes, yielding millions of dollars in potential savings to airlines and benefitting passengers. It is the sense of Congress that— the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate builds on the successful legacy of NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which worked closely with industry partners to advance both military and civil aviation until its dissolution in 1958;
NASA aeronautics research, development, and test activities, including investments into composite structures, new fuels, and innovative aircraft concepts, must continue in order to support U.S. leadership in aviation; the Directorate’s efforts to collaborate with the aviation industry to gather and analyze data and to prototype and test algorithms that optimize flight routes, manage air traffic, and account for weather impacts are critical to supporting the safe use of the national airspace; and continued cooperation between NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the Federal Aviation Administration is vital to providing the data and tools necessary to best regulate the national airspace and to ensure that new technologies are effectively tested and acquire timely regulatory approval.