Every organization has to change with changing circumstances or risk extinction or irrelevance. NASA's Aeronautics arm has been under severe budgetary and political pressure for quite a while, and neither of those pressures show any credible signs of letting up. In my opinion, NASA Aeronautics has gradually been moving from a role of pointing the way ahead to industry ("Here's the way you need to go.") to a role of simply supporting an industry that has already selected the path forward and needs someone to perform portions of the work to get them there ("Oh, you want to go that way? Let us help.") Is this wrong? I'm not sure, but I don't think so. I think it is just a fact of life in austere times. The U.S. has very few industries that have continually sustained a positive contribution to our pitifully negative trade balance. The aircraft produced in the U.S. provide a huge bright spot in those darkening economic numbers. Hopefully NASA can continue to support that fact, as leader or as support, in whatever way budgets allow.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=36857
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