Presidential Papers, Doc#837 To Elwood Richard Quesada, 31 August 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #837; August 31, 1958
To Elwood Richard Quesada
Series: EM, AWF, Name Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part V: Forcing the President's Hand; June 1958 to October 1958
Chapter 12: America Invades the Mideast

 

Dear Pete: It is good news that you have been able to achieve an "agreement in principle" looking toward a single National Aviation Weather System.1 Such a program has long been needed, and there is no doubt that it can be operated more efficiently, more economically, and with better results than have formerly been possible under the divergent systems that had grown up.

Won’t you please, at some convenient time, convey to Mr. Reichelderfer my special thanks for his cooperation in the matter?2

And my personal congratulations to you on making such an achievement possible!3

With warm regard, As ever

1 Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Quesada, Chairman of the Airways Modernization Board, had been Special Assistant to the President for Aviation since the passage of the Airways Modernization Act of 1957. For background on the legislation, which established a temporary Airways Modernization Board to coordinate proposals with the Federal Communications Commission and Civil Aeronautics Board in order to develop traffic controls for military and civilian planes, see no. 288. Quesada had written on August 28 (AWF/N) that the National Aviation Weather System would meet military, civil, commercial, and agricultural aviation needs. The Airways Modernization Board, (and eventually the Federal Aviation Agency) would promote a unified research program and would consolidate the existing programs of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Weather Bureau, and the armed services.

Eisenhower had signed the bill (P.L. 726) to create the Federal Aviation Agency on August 23. The new agency combined the existing aviation functions of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Airways Modernization Board and the Commerce Department (see Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XIV, 1958, pp. 233 - 34, and Stuart I. Rochester, Takeoff at Mid-Century: Federal Civil Aviation Policy in the Eisenhower Years 1953 - 1961 [Washington, D.C., 1976]; see also New York Times, Nov. 30, 1958).

2 Quesada had complimented Francis Wilton Reichelderfer (A.B. Northwestern University 1917), head of the U.S. Weather Bureau, for his cooperation. Reichelderfer had been with the U.S. Weather Bureau since 1938. During World War I he had served as a Naval meteorological officer, and he had directed the Naval Meteorological Organization from 1922 until 1928.

3 On September 30 Eisenhower would appoint Quesada Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency, effective November 1 (see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1958, pp. 710 - 11, and New York Times, Sept. 14, Oct. 1, 4, 1958). For developments see no. 1635.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Elwood Richard Quesada, 31 August 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 837. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/837.cfm

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