Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
NASA has slashed funding for aeronautics research and transferred the money to the International Space Station (ISS) programme. The shift poses a question about the government's role in funding 'conventional' aerospace research, says NASA's financial controller, Mal Peterson.
Compared to this year, funding for aeronautical research has been cut by $300 million, forcing cancellation of the Advanced Subsonic Transport (AST) and High Speed Research (HSR) programmes. Funding for the ISS has been increased by $180 million, within an overall NASA budget of $13.58 billion, down slightly on FY1999. The move was exclusively forecast by Flight International in the 9-15 December issue.
Administrator Dan Goldin says NASA discontinued research into supersonic transports after industry partner Boeing withdrew . Peterson says the original plan was to transfer the funds earmarked for the HSR to other aeronautics projects, "...but it was decided that the ISS had higher priority."
Funding for the HSR and AST programmes totalled over $270 million in the FY1999 budget. In the FY2000 budget request they are replaced by three smaller programmes, covering aviation system capacity, safety and ultra-efficient engine technology.
Elements of the HSR and AST programmes survive within these new projects, Peterson says. The Advanced General Aviation Transportation Experiments (AGATE) programme is "still alive", says Peterson, but has been folded into the reduced aeronautical research and technology base programme. AGATE was intended to revitalise the US general aviation industry, by developing technology for low-cost, easy-to-fly light aircraft. The only element of the programme specifically mentioned by NASA in its budget briefings was the General Aviation Propulsion project, to flight test small diesel and turbine engines in 2000.
Peterson accepts that NASA's FY2000 budget request represents a further shift towards space technology. "The trend in aeronautics was already coming down," he says. Funding was $920 million in FY1998. The budget for FY2000 is $620 million.
Source: Flight International
