Page 41 - Planning and Design of Airports

The Natur e of Civil Aviation and Airports 19

the safety board was an independent body for the investigation of
accidents; and the concerns of the administrator dealt primarily with
construction, operation, and maintenance of the airways.
During the first year and a half of its existence a number of
organizational difficulties arose within the Civil Aeronautics Authority.
As a result, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, acting within the author-
ity granted to him in the Reorganization Act of 1939 (55 Stat. 561),
reorganized the Civil Aeronautics Authority and created two sepa-
rate agencies, the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Civil Aeronautics
Administration. The five-member authority remained as an inde-
pendent agency and became known as the Civil Aeronautics Board;
the Air Safety Board was abolished and its functions given to the
Civil Aeronautics Board; and the administrator became the head of
an agency within the Department of Commerce known as the Civil
Aeronautics Administration (CAA). The duties of the original five-
member authority were unchanged, except that certain responsi-
bilities, such as accident investigation, were added because of the
abolition of the Air Safety Board. The administrator, in addition to
retaining the functions of supervising construction, maintenance,
and operation of the airways, was required to undertake the admin-
istration and enforcement of safety regulations and the administra-
tion of the laws with regard to aircraft operation. Subsequently,
the administrator became directly responsible to the Secretary of
Commerce (1950).
The Civil Aeronautics Act, like its predecessor the Air Commerce
Act, authorized the federal government to establish, operate, and
maintain the airways, but again, authorization for actively aiding air-
port development was lacking. The act, however, authorized the
expenditure of federal funds for the construction of landing areas
provided the administrator certified “that such landing area was rea-
sonably necessary for use in air commerce or in the interests of
national defense.” The act also directed the administrator to make a
survey of airport needs in the United States and report to Congress
about the desirability of federal participation and the extent to which
the federal government should participate.
In accordance with the requirements of the Act, the Civil
Aeronautics Authority conducted a detailed survey of the airport
needs of the nation. An advisory committee was appointed, com-
posed of representatives of interested federal agencies (both military
and civil), state aviation officials, airport managers, airline represent-
atives, and others. A report was submitted to Congress on March 23,
1939 (House Document 245, 76th Congress, 1st Session). Some of the
more important recommendations in this report were as follows:

1. Development and maintenance of an adequate system of air-
ports and seaplane bases should be recognized in principle as
a matter of national concern.