California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

House ResolutionNo. 37


Introduced by Assembly Member O'Donnell

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom, Burke, Frazier, Gray, Irwin, Lackey, Low, Mathis, and Wilk)

February 12, 2016


House Resolution No. 37—Relative to California Aerospace Days.

P1    1WHEREAS, The California aerospace industry is a powerful,
2reliable source of employment, innovation, and export income,
3directly employing more than 203,000 people in California and
4supporting more than 511,000 jobs in related fields resulting in
5$2.9 billion in annual state income tax revenues; and

6WHEREAS, The California aerospace industry leads the United
7States in aerospace and defense services, including the design and
8manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft, and commercial satellites, as
9well as a myriad of systems and instruments for search, detection,
10navigation, guidance, and radio and television broadcast and
11wireless communication systems; and

12WHEREAS, California is home to many superb sites of air and
13space activity, including Vandenberg Air Force Base, two Federal
14Aviation Administration-licensed launch sites, the Mojave Air and
15Spaceport, more than 20 astronomical observatories, multiple
16international airports, many important defense aerospace bases,
17and hundreds of business and general aviation airfields; and

18WHEREAS, California is also home to three National
19Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research and
20engineering centers, the Ames Research Center, the NASA Neil
21A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, formerly known as the
P2    1Dryden Flight Research Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2(JPL); and

3WHEREAS, California has led the nation in aeronautical firsts
4and California’s aerospace industry produced many of the
5significant and record-breaking aircraft that are now represented
6in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
7The Spirit of St. Louis, which in 1927 performed the first solo
8nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, France, was
9designed and built in California by Ryan Airlines and made Charles
10Lindbergh an international hero. The Douglas DC-3, recognized
11as the most successful airliner in history, dominating both
12commercial and military air transportation from its introduction
13in 1935 until after World War II, was designed and built in
14California by the Douglas Aircraft Company. The Space Shuttle
15was designed, built, assembled, and tested in California. California
16is home to Edwards Air Force Base, the site of five test flights of
17the Shuttle Enterprise, the landing site of 54 Space Shuttle
18missions, and the site of the 199 X-15 missions; and

19WHEREAS, Edwards Air Force Base, known for its notable
20aeronautical achievements, was the location of many first flights
21of American aircraft, shuttles, and experimental jets flown from
22Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert of Kern County. America’s
23first jet, XP-59A, was first flown in California. General Charles
24“Chuck” Yeager made world history in California on October 14,
251947, when he became the first man to fly Mach 1, faster than the
26speed of sound, while piloting the Bell X-1 rocket plane. The rocket
27powered X-15, flown by former State Senator William J. “Pete”
28Knight, attained a speed of Mach 6.7 (4,520 miles per hour), a
29speed that remains, to this day, the highest ever attained in a
30manned aircraft. The Rutan Model 76 Voyager was the first aircraft
31to fly around the world without stopping or refueling; and

32WHEREAS, California has led the nation in firsts in human
33space exploration, including the manufacture of the Apollo 11
34command module that carried the first humans to the surface of
35our moon; the manufacture and landing of the Space Shuttle
36orbiters, the first reusable space vehicles, which include the
37Endeavour, on display at the California Science Center; and the
38manufacture and recovery of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and
39Falcon launch vehicle, the first privately funded space exploration
40system. The Space X Dragon cargo spacecraft has made 6
P3    1successful commercial cargo resupply flights to the International
2Space Station; and

3WHEREAS, California has led the nation in firsts in robotic
4space exploration, including the Explorer 1 Earth observation
5satellite as America’s first successful spacecraft, the Mariner 2 as
6the first spacecraft to explore another planet, the Viking landers
7as the first spacecrafts to perform experiments on another planet,
8and the development of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft as the first to
9exit our solar system; and

10WHEREAS, Californians, through NASA and JPL, build,
11manage, and operate the majority of the spacecraft exploring our
12solar system, including the most recent Mars Science Laboratory
13“Curiosity,” and those spacecraft exploring other solar systems,
14like the Kepler exoplanet discovery mission, as well as the SOFIA,
15the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, that
16administers the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program for
17educators who have inspired the dreams of California youth; and

18WHEREAS, Sally Kristen Ride, Ph.D., who was born in
19California, stands in history as a pioneer in space exploration and
20academia and serves as a role model for others, by virtue of having
21been the first American woman and the youngest person to go into
22space when she traveled aboard the Challenger spacecraft on June
2318, 1983; and

24WHEREAS, California aerospace industries assemble the
25legendary Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, build the impressive
26Northrop Grumman Global Hawk Unmanned Aircraft Systems,
27engineer radical new aircraft at the famous Lockheed Martin
28“Skunk Works” Advanced Development Programs facility, and
29create systems that assist and protect members of the Armed Forces
30of the United States through military communications, situational
31awareness, satellite-guided ordnance, and technologies yet to be
32dreamed of; and

33WHEREAS, Los Angeles Air Force Base, home of the Space
34and Missile Systems Center (SMC) since 1962, carries out vitally
35important work, including managing research, development, and
36acquisition of aerospace technology for military space systems,
37and continues to be an irreplaceable economic hub and center of
38military space acquisition excellence for the nation; and

39WHEREAS, California is home to the burgeoning private space
40industry with SpaceX and Virgin Galactic having administrative
P4    1and manufacturing facilities located in the state and producing the
2future spacecrafts that will launch the next generation of military,
3governmental, scientific, and commercial satellites into space,
4resupply the International Space Station, and provide private
5citizens the opportunity to travel into space; and

6WHEREAS, California will continue to lead in aerospace
7education, through its superb science, technology, engineering,
8and mathematics (STEM) education programs and at its world-class
9research universities, and thus will continue to lead the world with
10the innovation that enabled advanced meteorological forecasting,
11the Global Positioning System, NextGen tools for air traffic
12management, green aviation, sophisticated wind tunnels and test
13facilities, and advanced supercomputing and robotics; and now,
14therefore, be it

15Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
16Assembly recognizes the contributions of the aerospace industry
17to the communities, citizens, history, economy, security, and
18educational system of California by proclaiming the days of
19February 29, 2016, and March 1, 2016, as California Aerospace
20Days; and be it further

21Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
22of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.



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