This Day in FAA History: July 20th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19420720: Charles I. Stanton was sworn in as Administrator of Civil Aeronautics. Nominated on May 27, he had been Acting Administrator since the January 15 resignation of Brig. Gen. Donald H. Connolly (see July 11, 1940). Connolly had resigned to serve on the staff of Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces. As Military Director of Civil Aviation, Connolly coordinated all civil aviation activities with the program of the Army Air Forces.
19520720: Because of a curtailment of operating funds, CAA ceased publication of its CAA Journal. (See January 15, 1940.)
19640720: To decentralize and thus speed up operational decisionmaking in airspace management, FAA transferred the responsibility for designating controlled airspace in terminal areas from Washington to the regional headquarters.
19690720: Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., became the first people to land on the Moon, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. Later in the day, Armstrong and then Aldrin became the first to walk on the lunar surface. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Project Apollo achieved five more Moon landings between this date and December 11, 1972.
19720720: FAA redesignated the Pacific Region the Pacific-Asia Region. At the same time, the agency transferred the responsibility for the geographic area of the People’s Republic of China to this region from the Europe, Africa, and Middle East Region. (See April 2, 1971.)
19790720: Brock Adams resigned as Secretary of Transportation. Adams had voiced concerns about the Carter Administration’s transportation policies and his own need for access to the President. After resigning, he stated to the press that he took the action rather than comply with White House demands that included dismissal of one of his aides. Adams’ resignation was part of a Cabinet shakeup that involved the departure of four other secretaries.
19900720: An FAA directive issued this date established the new position of Assistant Administrator for Civil Aviation Security in response to a recommendation by the President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (see May 15, 1990). Orlo K. Steele, a retired Marine Major General, was appointed to fill that position on November 1. On November 23, FAA announced a new structure for the security organization. A Scientific Staff was created to advise Steele, and four new offices were established to handle: Policy and Planning; Program and Resource Management; Operations; and Intelligence.
19920720: One of the Navy Department’s five prototypes of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor crashed in the Potomac River, killing all seven people aboard. (Another of the prototypes had crashed, causing no injuries, during the previous summer.) The Navy Department suspended V-22 flight testing until after an accident report, dated May 18, 1993, identified a fluid leak and fire as the cause of the Potomac River crash. On August 20, a XV-15 tiltrotor crashed during a Bell Helicopter demonstration flight at Arlington (Texas) Municipal Airport. The XV-15, a smaller, two-seat version of the V-22, was a forerunner of the Osprey.
20100720: FAA issued a final rule requiring re-registration of all civil aircraft over the next three years and renewal every three years after that. Re-registration would enhance the aircraft registration database with current data derived from recent contact with aircraft owners. The new regulations also would ensure that aircraft owners gave the FAA updated information at least once every three years when they renewed their registration. The FAA planned to cancel the N-numbers of aircraft that were not reregistered or renewed. (See April 30, 1980.)
20160720: Moon Express Inc., a Florida-based firm started in 2010, announced FAA had granted it permission to conduct an independent moon landing.
20180720: In a policy statement, FAA said it had exclusive authority over aircraft operations, including unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), within navigable airspace, although it allowed state and local governments to regulate landing sites. Flight paths, altitudes, or operational bans within navigable airspace – defined by federal regulation as airspace at or above prescribed minimum flight altitudes, including airspace needed for safe takeoff and landing – remained within FAA’s purview. (See May 9, 2018; October 1, 2018.)
20180720: FAA issued Gulfstream Aerospace a production certificate for its G500 twin-engine business jet.
20210720: FAA issued its decision on the environmental review for the LaGuardia Airport AirTrain. The decision allowed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to build the train, which would connect LaGuardia to the New York City Transit Subway 7 Line and the Long Island Railroad Port Washington Branch at Mets-Willets Point. The $2 billion project to build a rail link connecting New York City to LaGuardia Airport was officially put on hold on October 12, after weeks of criticism from public officials and a lawsuit from neighborhood and environmental groups. In a news release, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it is pausing the project to consider alternatives.
20210720: FAA updated its FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program, inaugurated in 2004. The original policy stated that a person qualified for astronaut status if they flew 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. This change came in light of Richard Branson’s space flight on July 11 and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin flight on July 20. The new policy would became effective in January 2022. To earn such wings, commercial launch crew members had to be employed by a FAA-certified company performing the launch; they had to reach an altitude higher than 50 miles above the surface of the Earth during flight; and they had to have demonstrated activities during the mission “essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.” Space tourists who paid for space joy rides were not eligible to receive astronaut wings. On December 10, FAA revised the program and announced it would end its Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program in 2022. Beginning in 2022 FAA would recognize individuals who reach space on its website instead of issuing Commercial Space Astronaut Wings. Before the program ended, FAA awarded wings to those who had qualifying space travel in 2021.