Congress to consider aeronautics plan drawn up by industry and academia; NASA budget described as ‘disaster'
A plan to at least double US government funding for aeronautics research and development will be presented to Congress by the end of this month. Requested by lawmakers, the five-year plan comes as Congress is told by industry and academia that NASA's fiscal year 2006 budget request for aeronautics research is a "disaster".
The integrated budget plan has been drawn up over the last five months by more than 250 experts from industry and academia using $5 million in funding that Congress told NASA to provide to the private, non-profit National Institute of Aerospace (NIA).
The money was earmarked in the FY2004 budget, but was released only in October. As a result, the report is a year late. The plan is a five-year roadmap for technology research to meet short-range (2015-20) and long-range (2040-50) needs in subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic vehicles, rotorcraft, airspace systems, aviation safety and security.
Meanwhile, the European Commission's advisory council for aeronautics research, ACARE, plans to unveil the second edition of its strategic research agenda (SRA) at the end of the month. This will determine civil aeronautics research to be conducted under the EC's seventh framework programme, for which €2.5 billion ($3.25 billion) in funding over seven years from 2007 will be sought later this year.
This is a substantial increase over the €840 million allocated to aeronautics R&D in the five-year sixth framework now under way.
Increased and targeted European government research funding was cited as a threat to US industry at a Congressional hearing last week on the future of aeronautics at NASA. Funding for aeronautics has been cut 20% in the FY2006 budget request to pay for NASA's space exploration programme.
The cuts "have serious implications for the ability of NASA to continue to play a relevant role in aeronautics", said Mike Benzakein, head of aerospace engineering at Ohio State University and former GE Aircraft Engines chief engineer.
John Klineberg, chairman of the National Research Council panel that issued a 2003 report critical of NASA's aeronautics programmes, called the FY2004 budget "an unmitigated disaster". Defending NASA's decision to focus its limited funding on long-term breakthrough technologies, associate administrator for aeronautics Vic Lebacqz said: "Probably the time is right for a vigorous national dialogue [on aeronautics research]."
NIA officials admit the new budget plan is not guided by any national vision for aeronautics, and critics say the roadmap does nothing to prioritise research. European R&D is guided by the Vision 2020 plan for civil aeronautics released in 2001, and ACARE says its SRA prioritises research in pursuit of the vision.
GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
