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The Manufacturers Aircraft Association was formed to administer a cross-license agreement, issue licenses, aid the aircraft industry, and encourage aeronautical development. The N.A.C.A.'s plan was to create an organization independent of the government. was created by congress in 1915 to advise the president and the executive departments on aeronautical questions). Ingraham, then Acting Secretary of War, requested the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to study this problem (the N.A.C.A. Roosevelt, then Acting Secretary of the Navy, and Hon.
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Because aeronautical development in the United Stated was seriously retarded by litigation over the validity and value of important airplane patents, the government thought that natural expansion and normal growth of the industry seemed impossible. Therefore inventions, patents, and design rights applicable to aircraft became a national interest. The Association came into being when the United States government realized the utility of aircraft in military operations in 1916. In 1965 the government filed an anti-trust suit against the association. The association was investigated numerous times by congressional committees throughout its history. From the day of its incorporation the motives of the manufacturers and the government were controversial.
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The association protected its members' patent rights. The subscribers were airplane manufacturers who were stockholders and paid fees for every plane that they manufactured. was created in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to administer a cross-license agreement, issue licenses to aircraft companies, aid the aircraft industry, and encourage aeronautical development. The Manufacturers Aircraft Association Inc.
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