Reflections on the 1986–87 AHA Aerospace History Fellowship

No matter the number of journal articles and books a scholar has authored, accepting the responsibilities of the American Historical Association Aerospace History Fellowship is a scary undertaking. The fellow promises not just to study something, but to produce from a year’s study a publishable manuscript on a specific topic. What if the chosen topic proves recalcitrant? What if this time, writer’s block cannot be overcome? What if inspira­tion fails? The obligation to produce a pub­lishable manuscript on a specific topic within a limited time period is far different from an obligation to work diligently.

Such thoughts become more acute with the award and acceptance of the fellowship, but play a part as well in the application for the fellowship. There a cautious scholar delineates possibilities rather than promises, with the fervent hope that at least one of the possibilities will prove a fruitful topic for study and result in a manuscript not merely publishable but worth publishing and worth reading.

Hence the acceptance of the fellowship, while cause for celebration, also brings on panic. A frantic burst of exploratory research tests possibilities sketched in the fellowship application, desperately seeking within the outlines of the proposed research a produc­tive problem of historiographical signifi­cance. “Depend upon it, Sir,” said Samuel Johnson, “when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates  his mind wonderfully.” Under more academic circumstances, a scholar could leisurely fol­low paths that might eventually prove to be dead end, and then move on to other topics. The Aerospace History Fellowship, however, makes more timely demands.

My primary research target during the fellowship was a study of the intellectual, political, and military origins of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at Ames Research Center, Sunnyvale, California. The topic proved more accessible and fruitful than the applicant’s most optimistic hopes.

Despite a distinguished tradition of gener­ous support for historical studies by the His­tory Office of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NACA’s successor, some of the broader aspects of NACA’s and NASA’s history have yet to be explored in detail. Consequently, NASA sponsorship of an aerospace history fellowship, under the auspices of the American Historical Associa­tion, is an important effort by a forward­ looking institution to transcend a tradition of chronologies and institutional histories.

The new aerospace history fellowship en­courages the wider historical study now made feasible by the laborious completion of sound administrative histories. Under the auspices of the AHA, the fellowship encour­ages taking a broader historical view than has previously been possible in NASA studies and allows more flexibility in work practices. An important contribution the AHA brings to the aerospace history fellowships is the provision of public forums in which to discuss and revise studies. Presentation of the 1986–87 study in a lecture at the National Air and Space Museum arranged by the AHA helped bring the work to the notice of other scholars and elicited constructive criti­cism. Notice of the fellowship award in Per­spectives also alerted scholars to the work in progress and brought forward helpful suggestions.