President Bush recently signed an Executive Order (EO) establishing the nation’s first Aeronautics Research and Development Policy.

That EO was accompanied by release of a supporting policy document developed by the Aeronautics Science and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.

The policy aims to advance U.S. technological leadership in aeronautics by fostering a vibrant and dynamic aeronautics research and development (R&D) community that includes government, industry, and academia.

That policy defines principles on which federal government aeronautics R&D will be based and the policy goal, objectives and general guidelines that will drive these aeronautics R&D activities through 2020.

As well, the policy describes roles and responsibilities of key executive departments and agencies in each of four primary areas of aeronautics R&D:

• Stable and long-term foundational research
• Advanced aircraft systems development
• Air transportation management systems
• National research, development, test and evaluation infrastructure.

The policy also urges developing a national aeronautics R&D plan that will set priorities and objectives, and produce roadmaps to achieve the objectives with timelines.

That council Aeronautics S&T Subcommittee will develop the plan this year.

In addition to the R&D plan, an accompanying infrastructure plan will identify critical U.S. research, development, test, and evaluation assets and define an approach for constructing, maintaining, modifying, or terminating these assets based on the needs of the broad user community.