BILL NUMBER: HR 37 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member O'Donnell
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom, Burke, Frazier, Gray, Irwin,
Lackey, Low, Mathis, and Wilk)
FEBRUARY 12, 2016
Relative to California Aerospace Days.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST
WHEREAS, The California aerospace industry is a powerful, reliable
source of employment, innovation, and export income, directly
employing more than 203,000 people in California and supporting more
than 511,000 jobs in related fields resulting in $2.9 billion in
annual state income tax revenues; 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, the
Ames Research Center, the NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research
Center, formerly known as 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, France, 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 experimental 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 a manned aircraft. 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. The Space X Dragon cargo
spacecraft has made 6 successful commercial cargo resupply flights to
the International Space Station; 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, Sally Kristen Ride, Ph.D., who was born in California,
stands in history as a pioneer in space exploration and academia and
serves as a role model for others, by virtue of having been the first
American woman and the youngest person to go into space when she
traveled aboard the Challenger spacecraft on June 18, 1983; and
WHEREAS, California aerospace industries assemble the legendary
Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, build the impressive Northrop Grumman
Global Hawk Unmanned 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 Armed Forces of the United States through military
communications, situational awareness, satellite-guided ordnance, and
technologies yet to be dreamed of; and
WHEREAS, Los Angeles Air Force Base, home of the Space and Missile
Systems Center (SMC) since 1962, carries out vitally important work,
including managing research, development, and acquisition of
aerospace technology for military space systems, and continues to be
an irreplaceable economic hub and center of military space
acquisition excellence for the nation; and
WHEREAS, California is home to the burgeoning private space
industry with SpaceX and Virgin Galactic having administrative and
manufacturing facilities located in the state and producing the
future spacecrafts that will launch the next generation of military,
governmental, scientific, and commercial satellites into space,
resupply the International Space Station, and provide private
citizens the opportunity to travel into space; 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 now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
Assembly recognizes the contributions of the aerospace industry to
the communities, citizens, history, economy, security, and
educational system of California by proclaiming the days of February
29, 2016, and March 1, 2016, as California Aerospace Days; and be it
further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.