Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 16

Introduced by Senator Knight

(Coauthors: Senators Anderson, Berryhill, Block, Cannella, Corbett, Correa, Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Huff, Jackson, Lieu, Nielsen, Pavley, Price, Steinberg, Walters, Wright, and Wyland)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Conway, Donnelly, Gorell, Hall, Maienschein, and Muratsuchi)

February 27, 2013

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 16—Relative to aerospace.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 16, as introduced, Knight. California Aerospace Month.

This measure would recognize the contributions of the aerospace industry to the history, economy, security, and educational system of California, its communities, and its citizens by proclaiming the month of March 2013 as California Aerospace Month.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The California aerospace industry is a powerful,
reliable source of employment, innovation, and export income,
directly employing more than 162,000 people in California and
supporting more than 640,000 jobs in related fields for a total
payroll estimated at $15.3 billion annually and resulting in $500
million in annual state income taxes; and

WHEREAS, The California aerospace industry leads the United
States in aerospace and defense services, including the design and
manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft, and commercial satellites, as
well as a myriad of systems and instruments for search, detection,
navigation, guidance, and radio and television broadcast and
wireless communication systems; and

WHEREAS, California is home to many superb sites of air and
space activity, including Vandenberg Air Force Base, two Federal
Aviation Administration-licensed launch sites, the Mojave Air and
Spaceport, more than 20 astronomical observatories, multiple
international airports, many important defense aerospace bases,
and hundreds of business and general aviation airfields; and

WHEREAS, California is also home to three National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research and
engineering centers. These centers are recognized as the Ames
Research Center, the Dryden Flight Research Center, and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); and

WHEREAS, California has led the nation in aeronautical firsts
and California’s aerospace industry produced many of the
significant and record-breaking aircraft that are now represented
in The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
The Spirit of St. Louis, which in 1927 performed the first solo
nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, was designed
and built in California by Ryan Airlines and made Charles
Lindbergh an international hero. The Douglas DC-3, recognized
as the most successful airliner in history, dominating both
commercial and military air transportation from its introduction
in 1935 until after World War II, was designed and built in
California by the Douglas Aircraft Company. The Space Shuttle
was designed, built, assembled, and tested in California. California
is home to Edwards Air Force Base, the site of five test flights of
the Shuttle Enterprise, the landing site of 54 Space Shuttle
missions, and the site of the 199 X-15 missions; and

WHEREAS, Edwards Air Force Base, known for its notable
aeronautical achievements, was the location of many first flights
of American aircraft, shuttles, and jets flown from Rogers Dry
Lake in the Mojave Desert of Kern County. America’s first jet,
XP-59A, was first flown in California. General Charles “Chuck”
Yeager made world history in California on October 14, 1947,
when he became the first man to fly Mach 1, faster than the speed
of sound, while piloting the Bell X-1 rocket plane. The rocket
powered X-15, flown by former State Senator William J. “Pete”
Knight, attained a speed of Mach 6.7 (4,520 miles per hour), a
speed that remains, to this day, the highest ever attained in an
airplane. The Rutan Model 76 Voyager, was the first aircraft to
fly around the world without stopping or refueling; and

WHEREAS, California has led the nation in firsts in human
space exploration, including the manufacture of the Apollo 11
command module that carried the first humans to the surface of
our moon; the manufacture and landing of the Space Shuttle
orbiters, the first reusable space vehicles, which include the
Endeavour, on display at the California Science Center; and the
manufacture and recovery of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and
Falcon launch vehicle, the first privately funded space exploration
system; and

WHEREAS, California has led the nation in firsts in robotic
space exploration, including the Explorer 1 Earth observation
satellite as America’s first successful spacecraft, the Mariner 2 as
the first spacecraft to explore another planet, the Viking landers
as the first spacecrafts to perform experiments on another planet,
and the development of the Pioneer spacecraft as the first to exit
our solar system; and

WHEREAS, Californians, through NASA and JPL, build,
manage, and operate the majority of the spacecraft exploring our
solar system, including the most recent Mars Science Laboratory
“Curiosity,” and those spacecraft exploring other solar systems,
like the Kepler exoplanet discovery mission, as well as the SOFIA,
the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy that
administers the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program for
educators who have inspired the dreams of California youth; and

WHEREAS, California aerospace industries assemble the
legendary Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, build the impressive
Northrop Grumman Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Systems,
engineer radical new aircraft at the famous Lockheed Martin
“Skunk Works” Advanced Development Programs facility, and
create systems that assist and protect members of the American
Armed Forces through military communications, situational
awareness, satellite-guided ordnance, and technologies yet to be
dreamed of; and

WHEREAS, California will continue to lead in aerospace
education, through its superb Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) education programs and at its
world-class research universities, and thus will continue to lead
the world with the innovation that enabled advanced meteorological
forecasting, the Global Positioning System, NextGen tools for air
traffic management, green aviation, sophisticated wind tunnels
and test facilities, and advanced supercomputing and robotics; and

WHEREAS, The American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics (AIAA), in conjunction with NASA, is sponsoring a
month of events to highlight the contributions of the aerospace
community to California, including panel discussions, educational
displays, tours, and the “AIAA Policy Symposium: Civilian
Applications of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) - A California
Perspective,” during March 2013; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the California Legislature recognizes the
contributions of the aerospace industry to the history, economy,
security, and educational system of California, its communities,
and its citizens by proclaiming the month of March 2013 as
California Aerospace Month; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of State transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.