This is the April 4, 1957 interim report of Edward P. Curtis, President Eisenhower’s Special Assistant for Aviation Facilities Planning. It recommends the immediate establishment of an independent Airways Modernization Board to mediate between the Commerce Department and the Defense Department in trying to develop a national air traffic control system that could handle both civil and defense aviation needs.

The plan and draft bill were approved in a Cabinet meeting on April 5, 1957, and transmitted to Congress on April 11, 1957. The report formed the basis of the Airways Modernization Act of 1957 (Public Law 85-153) enacted on August 14, 1957.