The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was created in response to the Great War, technical leaps in Europe and make US advancements in flight for practical means. Initially, legislation was brought forward to Congress but was rejected when it came to a vote. Charles Walcott from the Smithsonian Institute attempted to pick up the defeat legislation. Walcott provided the working outline of what the NACA would become. Walcott was forced to leave it in the hands of elected officials, Senator Benjamin Tillman and Congressman Ernest Roberts. Support for the project grew and Franklin D. Roosevelt (Assistant Secretary of the Navy) backed the plan. The legislation was then quietly attached to a Naval Appropriations Bill, and signed
