BILL NUMBER: SCR 16 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2013
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
Relative to aerospace.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SCR 16, as amended, 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, 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 10 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 Aircraft
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
United States 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
Unmanned 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 the
Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for
appropriate distribution.