WINDSHIELD PROTECTION Mr. STEFAN. Referring to your break-down of activities as shown on page 159, the item "Windshield protection." The committee suggested that you could get all that information from the Bureau of Standards, where they test glass of all kinds. I notice you are not asking for any money for that item for the coming fiscal year. Mr. STUART. No, sir. We were responsive to the wishes of this committee. Last year I instructed our people who were engaged in that work to conclude at the end of this fiscal year. Mr. STEFAN. The Bureau of Standards could give you all the information you would want on that, because they are testing glass of all kinds all the time, are they not? Mr. STUART. No, sir; they ran no such tests. Mr. STEFAN. You can get that information from them if you want to, can you not? Mr. STUART. No, sir. We have explored that field. We cannot get that information from them. CRASH RESISTANT FUEL TANKS Mr. STEFAN. You have an item, "Crash-resistant fuel tanks, $51,700." Could you not get the information you need under that from the Bureau of Standards? Mr. STUART. We could not. It takes very specialized testing equipment. We have a catapult that the Navy has furnished us and we use it to accelerate these fuel tanks up to 100 miles an hour in a very short distance. Mr. STEFAN. The Bureau of Standards is not equipped to do that? Mr. STUART. No, sir. SOIL MOISTURE DETERMINATION Mr. STEFAN. What about soil moisture determination? Could you not get that information from the Department of Agriculture. Mr. STUART. We work with the Department of Agriculture on that problem. Mr. STEFAN. Do you transfer funds to them in order to get that information? Mr. STUART. We have not transferred funds to them. Mr. STEFAN. Could you not get all of that information from the Department of Agriculture? Mr. STUART. No. They do not have the information. We are interested in the moisture content of soil under runways, because it has a great bearing on the amount of pavement required. If the soil moisture is high, it takes a great deal more pavement than it would otherwise. Mr. STEFAN. You see, we are being asked to appropriate about $3,000,000 for the Bureau of Standards. Here is $1,800,000 for this purpose and you have already transferred some of your activity to the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the activity of mapping, which was in here a couple of years ago, that we appropriated for. I was wondering if some of these things could not be transferred to some other department such as the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Standards. you have explained why; that is all. But ESTABLISHMENT OF AIR NAVIGATION FACILITIES STATEMENT OF W. E. KLINE, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF FEDERAL Mr. ROONEY. The next item, gentlemen, is to be found on page 48 of the committee print entitled "Establishment of Air Navigation Facilities." The justifications begin at page 147. DISTRIBUTION OF REQUIREMENTS FOR CASH APPROPRIATION CONTRACT AUTHORITY AND At this point we shall insert in the record pages 149 and 150, which contain a break-down summary of requirements and distribution of cash appropriation and contract authority. (The matter referred to is as follows:) Distribution of cash appropriation and contract authority 1949 1950 Appropriation or estimate. $10,099, 000 Contract authority 12, 341, 499 Less: Cash appropriation in 1950 for liquidation of obligations incurred under 1949 contract authority.. $23,650, 000 26, 500, 000 -8,000,000 Approved or proposed new program. 22, 440, 499 42, 150, 000 ESTIMATE FISCAL YEAR 1950 I note that under this item the amount of cash requested for the coming fiscal year is $23,650,000 as compared with $10,099,000 in the current fiscal year. It is to be noted also that while there was, in 1949, contract authority in the sum of $12,341,499, the amount now requested by way of contract authority is $26,500,000. The bulk of this appropriation is broken down into three items: One for continental United States; two, for Alaska, and three, for Pacific Ocean islands. Do you have a statement that you wish to present to the committee at this time in regard to this very substantial item? Mr. RENTZEL. I would like to state, Mr. Chairman, that the reason for this substantial increase, which is the largest part of the CAA increase, is that we are now embarking on the implementation of the RTCA program and the items included here for the continental United States, Alaska, and the Pacific represent the first substantial start toward the implementation of the system which we expect to give us all-weather operation, the first element of the transition system. Mr. Kline, who is the Director of Federal Airways, will be able to give you the details. Mr. ROONEY. I believe that we have usually had a statement inserted in this record with regard to the utilization of Federal airways, for which we spend all this money year after year. UTILIZATION OF FEDERAL AIRWAYS Do you have such a statement at this time, Mr. Kline? Mr. ROONEY. Yes. Mr. KLINE. We do have such a statement. The air-traffic control work load for the calendar year 1948 gives an indication of the utilization of the air route and the terminal facilities and I would like to submit this for the record. Mr. ROONEY. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the chart which was printed at page 210 of last year's hearings showing the number of civil and military aircraft using the Federal airways. Mr. KLINE. We will furnish that for the record, Mr. Chairman. (The statement is as follows:) UTILIZATION OF FEDERAL AIRWAYS Accurate statistics indicating the number of aircraft which utilize the facilities of the Federal airways system are not available. At the present time it is esti mated that there are 119,944 United States civil and military aircraft. This quantity is broken down as follows: (a) Active inventory for National Military Establishment Regular and Reserve forces__ Total (as of Dec. 31, 1948). 4, 320 27, 263 58, 462 5, 952 23, 947 119, 944 It is the opinion of the Office of Federal Airways that of the 119,944 United States aircraft, 71,634 aircraft are users of the Federal airways system. This estimate was derived by using the following assumption: 1. All multiengine (4,320) and single engine over 100 horsepower (27,263) are equipped to use airways aids. This category includes 1,061 scheduled air-carrier aircraft and 6,793 nonscheduled air-carrier aircraft. 2. Twenty-five percent of the single engine aircraft under 100 horsepower and 25 percent of the unspecified aircraft are equipped to utilize airways aids. The Federal Communications Commission reports that on December 31, 1948, 19,799 aircraft (21 percent) were equipped with two-way radio. Since air-navigation facilities can be utilized with a receiver only, the percentage was adjusted upward. 3. All United States military aircraft based in continental United States are potential users of the Federal airways system and the great majority of the planes in the active inventory use the system at some time during the year. Your attention is called to the fact that the military aircraft shown in the table on page 210 of the hearings before the subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, second session, include both active aircraft and aircraft in storage. The military aircraft shown in the above table include only active aircraft. 4. The number of foreign air carrier aircraft is small but they do make considerable use of our airways system. There are 21 scheduled foreign air carriers serving 19 United States cities with an excess of 10,000 scheduled round-trips per year. This class of user has not been included in our total estimate on aircraft using the airways. CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES PROGRAM AIR NAVIGATION RADIO FACILITIES Mr. ROONEY. The first item under the program for continental United States is "Air navigation radio facilities." How much is requested for this item? Mr. KLINE. We have an amount of $16,999,049. Mr. ROONEY. How much of that is cash? Mr. KLINE. I think we might have the cash broken down by the individual units, but not in one lump sum. Mr. ROONEY. Will you look at page 152 of your justifications and see if that will not help you to answer my question. Mr. POPE. Mr. Chairman, may I state that the amount of cash we are asking for is a percentage of the total appropriation. It is the amount that we feel will be required in the first year, based the number of contracts that will be due for payment. We did not attempt to break it down in detail by each of these categories. Mr. ROONEY. Will you please proceed to break down the $16,000,000 item? Mr. KLINE. This estimate provides $1,441,035 for improvements to our presently installed equipment. The estimate also includes $334,800 for modification of 400 veryhigh-frequency range antenna systems to accommodate the mounting of distance-measuring equipment antennae; $30,960 for construction of two very-high-frequency link repeater stations to provide adequate coverage for radio control circuits between terminals; and $149,028 for relocation of six very-high-frequency ranges, omnidirectional range stations. The principal item, $15,043,226 will provide 560 units of distancemeasuring equipment. Mr. ROONEY. Where are the very-high-frequency link repeater stations to be located? Mr. KLINE. One is at Salt Flat, Tex., and the other is at Atlantic City. The one in Texas will connect with the weather reporting station at Guadalupe Pass. That station is located approximately 18 miles from Salt Flat up in the mountain pass approximately 8.000foot altitude. The one at Atlantic City is to connect our Millville range with our communications station at Atlantic City. Mr. ROONEY. What have you to say with regard to this request for 560 units of distance-measuring equipment, amounting to $15,043,226? Mr. KLINE. That is a very important part of our basic navigation system. We now have installed and ready to operate, as you know, our omnirange system in the United States which is composed of approximately 400 ranges. This distance-measuring equipment— there will be one of these units installed at each of these omniranges. The omnirange will provide the direction in which the man is to fly. He has no indication at present as to how far he has traveled along that path. He knows that he is traveling in the right direction, but he has no idea what speed he is making other than his estimated speed and in order to furnish air traffic control with this information so that they can properly regulate flights at the terminals they must be able to tell him exactly how far he is from a given point. Distance-measuring equipment will provide that information. Mr. ROONEY. What is the cost of one of these items of equipment? Mr. KLINE. The unit cost of those is $29,594 at ILS locations and $25,780 at the omnirange locations. I might explain that difference in cost in that we have been able to install this equipment in the present buildings at our omnirange locations, mount the antenna on top of the present omnirange antenna system. Mr. ROONEY. This is quite a substantial increase over the cost of these items at this time a year ago, is it not? Mr. KLINE. Yes, it is. At the time we had requested money for these same items, we had no idea other than an estimate as to what they would cost. We have found throughout our whole program, Mr. Chairman, that the costs have exceeded our estimates during the past year. AIR NAVIGATION VISUAL FACILITIES Mr. ROONEY. What is the explanation of the $30,000 request for air navigation visual facilities? Mr. KLINE. This is for the promotion of air-marking. Mr. ROONEY. What do you mean by that? You do not help us by merely reading the language in the justifications. Mr. KLINE. That provides for our furnishing technical assistance, to promote the interest of municipalities in placing air markings on top of buildings, in towns, or, out in some large flat area to paint standard markings, (1) indicating true north, and (2) pointing to the nearest airport; things of that kind that we have recently established on similar skyways. |