Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19330301: At the Newark Municipal Airport, N.J., the Aeronautics Branch demonstrated a radio system that it had developed for the blind landing of aircraft. The Branch made the system available for service testing by aircraft equipped with the necessary radio receivers. Later that month, Aeronautics Branch pilot James L. Kinney completed the first cross-country test of an all instrument flight and landing when he arrived at Newark from College Park, Md. Kinney was accompanied by Harry Diamond, a Bureau of Standards scientist who helped develop the instrument landing system, and William LaViolette, a radio technician. (See September 13, 1934.)
19370301: The Bureau of Air Commerce commissioned the Los Angeles air route traffic control center on this date, followed by the Washington (D.C.) center on April 1 and the Oakland center on May 15.
19390301: The Civil Aeronautics Authority commissioned the Fort Worth air route traffic control center on this date, the Salt Lake City center on April 1, the St. Louis center on May 1, and the Atlanta center on October 1.
19480301: The Congressional Aviation Policy Board (Brewster Board) released its report. Established pursuant to Public Law 80-287 on July 30, 1947, the Board was to study the current and future needs of American aviation. In its report, the commission concluded “that a strong, stable, and modern civil aviation component is essential” to national security. The report formulated nearly 100 recommendations relating to military and civil aviation, aircraft manufacturing, research and development, and government organization. Realizing the airways system of the country was near the saturation point even for the existing fleet of 1,000 airliners, the board endosed rapid implementation of the RTCA SC-31 program as a first priority step toward the establishment of a common civil-military system . (See February 17, 1948.)
19490301: The Hoover Commission (Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government) submitted to Congress its recommendations concerning reorganization of the Commerce Department. Disagreeing with the suggestion of its task force that a new Department of Transportation be created, the Commission recommended grouping within the Commerce Department all major nonregulatory transportation activities of the Federal government. The report visualized replacing CAA with a Bureau of Civil Aviation having the authority to promulgate and enforce all air safety rules, while the Civil Aeronautics Board exercised only review responsibility with respect to such rules. It also recommended that the aeronautical research function as well as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) be brought into the proposed Bureau of Civil Aviation. (See February 9, 1950.)
19600301: FAA announced that it was giving its Air Traffic Communications Stations (ATCS) and International Air Traffic Communication Stations (IATCS) the new names Flight Service Stations (FSS) and International Flight Service Stations (IFSS) respectively to identify properly the primary functions of those stations.
The history of these evolving facilities can be traced to August 20, 1920, when the U.S. Post Office Department issued orders to establish the first Air Mail Radio Stations along the transcontinental air mail route. The first 10 stations were ready by November 1, and all 17 stations were operational by the end of 1921. When the Department of Commerce became responsible for the transcontinental airway (see July 1, 1927), it assumed operation of the stations, which it renamed Airway Radio Stations (see March 20, 1928). With other airway facilities, the stations were transferred to the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1938 and to the Civil Aeronautics Administration in 1940. They were redesignated as Airway Communication Stations in 1938, and were later known as Interstate Airway Communication Stations (INSACS) and Overseas and
19600301: Foreign Airway Communication Stations (OFACS). After becoming part of the new FAA in 1958, the facilities initially received the ATCS and IATCS designations until renamed as described above.
19620301: Los Angeles Airways began the world’s first airline service by a multi-engine turbine-powered transport helicopter. The airline used the new Sikorsky S-61L, which had first flown on December 6, 1960, and which became the first twin-turbine helicopter to receive an FAA commercial type certificate on November 2, 1961. An important competitor to the S-61L was the Boeing-Vertol 107-II, which had first flown in prototype on October 25, 1960, and received certification on January 26, 1962. The Vertol 107-II entered scheduled service with New York Airways on July 1, 1962.
19630301: The BOB-DOD-FAA Interagency Steering Committee (see February 17, 1962) reported to Administrator Halaby its findings concerning air traffic control and related functions of the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Agency. In summary, the Committee concluded: (1) a general assimilation of military traffic control functions by FAA could not be justified by cost or operational considerations; (2) assumption of operational and maintenance responsibilities by FAA for individual military facilities or classes of facilities might be advantageous, and the continuation of assimilation programs in such cases on a selective and mutually agreeable to basis was desirable; and (3) that it was desirable to further explore the feasibility of such joint programs as the training of traffic controllers and the establishment of common technical performance standards for equipment. By the time of this report, the opposing views of the air traffic controllers and the military had produced a deadlock that destroyed prospects for a Federal Aviation Service (see September 21, 1961.).
19660301: An unmanned Soviet spacecraft entered the atmosphere of Venus, becoming the first space probe to reach another planet.
19680301: The Point Barrow, Alaska, flight service station went into operation, becoming FAA’s northernmost facility (71 degrees 22 minutes north latitude). FAA’s southernmost facility, located at 14 degrees 16 minutes south latitude, was the Pago Pago international flight service station in American Samoa.
19700301: FAA implemented a revised separation standard to protect small aircraft from wake turbulence, rotating air currents trailed by large aircraft. The danger from these wake vortices had grown with the introduction of “jumbo” jetliners. The new standard changed from three miles to five miles the required separation between a “heavy” aircraft (over 300,000 pounds) and an aircraft operating behind it. (See November 1, 1975.)
19760301: A rule published on this date required removal of side-facing flight attendant seats from all airliners by May 1. In issuing the rule, FAA noted that flight attendants occupying side-facing seats were likely to receive more serious injuries during survivable accidents than passengers in forward-facing seats, and hence might be incapacitated at a time when their performance of emergency duties was most needed. (See February 15, 1980.)
19800301: AN FAA emergency rule on experience requirements for commuter airline pilots became effective. The pilot-in-command of a two-pilot crew was required to have logged between 10 and 25 hours of flight time in the particular aircraft make and model under the supervision of a qualified check pilot. The agency keyed the number of hours required to the complexity of the aircraft in question. Pilots of commuter aircraft approved for single-pilot operations with the aid of an autopilot were required to have 100 flight hours in the particular make and model of aircraft. FAA based its action on an analysis of 13 fatal commuter airline accidents that occurred during 1979.
19840301: Braniff resumed commercial flights. Now known as Braniff, Inc., the company operated on a smaller scale than before its suspension of flights (see May 12, 1982). To assist the airline’s recovery, FAA allocated it landing reservations at five airports where operations were limited by the high density rule and/or restrictions imposed due to the air traffic controllers’ strike. (See September 28, 1989.)
19860301: Trans World Airlines acquired Ozark Airlines under an agreement that received Department of Transportation approval in September. Ozark had begun flying in 1950 and expanded within the Midwest, then grew beyond that region with the introduction of airline deregulation in the late 1970s. The airline had encountered economic difficulties, beginning in 1984. Ozark’s operations merged into those of TWA on October 26, 1986.
19910301: The United States and 39 other nations signed a pact requiring the addition of a chemical marking agent to plastic explosives during manufacture to assist their identification by use of vapor detectors.
20060301: Effective this date, U.S. parties interested in transmitting certain types of financial interests (or prospective interests) to the international aircraft registry had to file a completed FAA entry point filing form (International Registry, AC Form 8050-135) with FAA. Upon receipt of the completed form, FAA would issue a unique authorization code. With the establishment of the new international aircraft registry, it was no longer sufficient for U.S. aircraft buyers or sellers to conduct searches and file documents only with FAA; they now also had to conduct searches and register interests in aircraft and high-value engines at the new international registry.
20130301: Saab Sensis Corporation announced it had partnered with Leesburg Executive Airport in Leesburg, VA, to demonstrate and evaluate remote tower technologies at the airport. The Virginia Department of Aviation and FAA were advisory partners for the project. For the demonstration, the partnership deployed a number of Saab technologies at the airport that provided data directly to a remote tower center also located at the airport. (See November 23, 2016.)
20180301: Aviation Week announced its 62nd Annual Laureate Award winners. The FAA/Industry Commercial Safety Aviation Safety Team/Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing Initiative won the commercial safety award.
20220301: FAA began installing eight new Automated Weather Observing Systems AWOS) across Alaska that would provide continuous, real-time, and accurate weather information to remote areas of the state. The eight new stations were in Akiachak, Coldfoot, Crooked Creek, Kotlik, Nulato, Perryville, Tok Junction, and Tununak. Weather information from these locations provided pilots a preview of what to expect when arriving. It allowed IFR pilots to conduct instrument approaches to the lowest possible minimums, increasing the safety and predictability of operations. (See October 14, 2021.)