Viewing page 27 of 76

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

To ALL Active ALPA Members  -11-  January 26, 1948

(2) The overall U.S aviation program -- past, present and future.

(3) The necessity of properly financing an aviation development program in all of its branches second to none.

(4) The indispensable part that air power would be called upon to assume is the event of war.

(5) The atomic age and its relation to the airplane as a defense weapon.

(6) The national defense value of the air lines and the air line pilots in World War II and in the future.

(7) The legislative program respecting both commercial and military aviation.

(8) The recommendation for the first time of a Bureau of Standards of Air Safety.

(9) The urgent necessity of a retirement system for the air line pilots.

(10) A overall summation of all vital needs of air line transportation and all other branches of the nation's aviation.

On January 13, the report of President Truman's Air Policy Commission was issued. Notably prominent in the report were the following quoted parts:

"There is no phase of commercial aviation that is more important that safety. We believe that an Air Safety Board should be established within the Department of Civil Aviation. We recommend that it consist of three members appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. The Air Safety Board would responsible for the investigation and analysis of air accidents and for submitting reports to the Secretary of Civil Aviation to be made public by him. The Air Safety Board could, in its discretion, delegate to the Department of Civil Aviation, the investigation and analysis of minor accidents, as the the Civil Aeronautics Board now delegates to the Civil Aeronautics Administration in the great majority of accidents. The Air Safety Board should be provided with sufficient staff to enable it to carry out its assigned functions, but the Secretary of Commerce should determine that there is no unnecessary duplication or overlapping of activities between the Air Safety Board and the Department of Civil Aviation that the Civil Aeronautics Board now has to the Department of Commerce. It thus would not be a separate agency pithing the Government but would be within the Department of Civil Aviation for housekeeping purposes only.

"We realize that the success of an Air Safety Board will depend upon two factor: the quality of its members and their independence of judgment. If these factors are assured, the Board should be able to make a valuable contribution to air safety.