This Day in FAA History: August 1st

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280801: As a first step toward promoting uniform state aeronautical legislation consistent with Federal law, the Aeronautics Branch issued Aeronautics Bulletin No. 18 reviewing the characteristics of various state statutes and setting forth suggested drafts of required laws. At this time, 20 states had no aeronautical legislation. (See December 16, 1930.)
19410801: CAA added a new region, the Eighth to its organizational structure. The region covered the territory of Alaska, with headquarters at Anchorage. Prior to this time, direction for aeronautical activities in Alaska had been provided partly by the Seventh Regional Office in Seattle, and partly by CAA’s Bureau of Federal Airways in Washington, D.C. (See June 1, 1938.)
19460801: A British civil aviation bill was approved, giving the monopoly of British scheduled air services to three state-owned corporations. In addition to the already existing British Overseas Airways Corporation, the British European Airways Corporation, and the British South American Airways Corporation were established.
19480801: The Secretary of Defense issued an order abolishing the 32-year-old Aeronautical Board, composed at the time of three members each of the Air Force and Navy and one Army member. Its functions were transferred to the Munitions Board and the Research and Development Board.
19500801: CAA commissioned the Wake Island air route traffic control center.
19560801: The President signed into law a bill permitting the Armed Forces to include flight instruction in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs.
19570801: The United States and Canada informally established the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). The two countries ratified a formal agreement the following May. The organization was renamed the North American Aerospace Defense Command on May 12, 1981.
19600801: FAA launched Project Searchlight, an intensive and comprehensive study of its activities involving maintenance of equipment in the Federal Airways System. The agency conducted the study in several phases, completing it in early 1962. The resulting recommendations led to several improvements (see January 1963 and May 1, 1963), including the creation of a separate Systems Maintenance Service (see May 16, 1962).
19720801: FAA implemented a new standard “Get-‘Em-High Earlier” departure procedure to reduce jet aircraft noise over airport communities nationwide. The new departure procedure, developed jointly with the Air Transport Association, was to be used by 23 U.S. airlines while operating out of most of the nation’s air carrier airports. The pilots would climb at full power to 1,500 feet, instead of 1,000 feet under the old system. Noise relief due to the higher alititude would be most noticeable from three to six miles from lift-off. The new “Get-‘Em-High” procedure supplemented the existing “Keep-‘Em-High” program. (See February 4, 1971, December 23, 1976, and January 19, 1979.)
19720801: FAA inaugurated the En Route Weather Advisory Service (EWAS) program at four Flight Service Stations: Seattle, Portland, Oakland, and Los Angeles. This service, designed to reduce weather-related general aviation aircraft accidents, provided en route pilots with currrent weather information along their intended route. Flight Service Station specialists trained in the collection and dissemination of aviation weather data manned the EWAS units. Each unit, in addition to obtaining weather information through normal teletype and facsimile channels, was linked by direct telephone line with the nearest National Weather Service forecast office. FAA completed the program in the summer of 1978, under the name En Route Flight Advisory Service (EFAS), when it commissioned the service at the last of 44 designated Flight Service Stations.
19720801: Northeast Airlines merged into Delta Air Lines. Northeast began as Boston-Maine Airways, which started operations on August 1, 1931, suspended flights in 1932, and resumed on August 11, 1933. The airline had adopted the name Northeast on November 19, 1940.
19750801: The establishment of a Group II Terminal Control Area (TCA) at the new Kansas City International Airport completed the creation of 12 airport areas in this category. FAA defined each TCA after consultation with airport users. General aviation operators, in particular, registered many objections to proposed TCA rules and limits. Since the original concept in 1970, FAA reduced the number of Group II TCAs from 14 to 12. The locations were: St. Louis, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, Denver, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Las Vegas; and Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Kansas City. (See April 14, 1975, and May 15, 1980.)
19810801: Michael J. Fenello became FAA’s Deputy Administrator, succeeding Quentin S. Taylor (see May 4, 1977). A native of Rochester, N.Y., Fenello was a graduate of Buffalo State Teachers College and held a Master’s degree in Administration and Supervision from New York University. He was a junior high school teacher before starting a 38-year career with Eastern Air Lines in January 1943. Fenello began as a copilot, rose to captain, and later served as a flight instructor and supervisor of flying before being promoted in 1963 to Assistant Operations Manager in New York. The following year, he was named Director of Administration for Flight Operations, with headquarters in Miami. In 1968, Fenello became Assistant to the Vice President, Operations Group, and in 1972 was promoted to Vice President, Operations Control. From 1976 until his retirement from Eastern in February 1981, he served as Vice President for System Operations and Safety. Fenello was FAA’s Deputy Administrator for two years and 9 months, resigning effective May 1, 1984. (See December 23, 1983, and December 13, 1984.)
19930801: A new collective bargaining agreement between FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) went into effect. The four-year agreement covered all operational air traffic control specialists in terminals and centers. (See May 1, 1989.)
19950801: FAA announced a decision to go forward as quickly as possible with the Display Channel Complex Rehost (DCCR) project to replace aging IBM 9020E computers at five Air Route Traffic Control Centers: Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, Cleveland, and New York. The centers had experienced 20 display channel complex failures in the past four months. On August 9, loss of electrical power at the Oakland center highlighted another type of outage problem. On August 11, a DOT/FAA announcement described steps to combat equipment service interruptions, including reviews of the problem by both FAA and outside experts, additional training, and hiring of 116 more maintenance technicians. On August 30, FAA announced award of a contract to Loral Corp. for DCCR production and installation. Highly-publicized outages at the Chicago center and other facilities prompted DOT and FAA statements during the next two months describing remedial actions and assuring the public that the air traffic control system was safe. On October 25, FAA awarded a five-year contract for new emergency electrical systems to provide backup power to air traffic facilities nationwide. (See April 1, 1996.)
19950801: DOT announced the availability of a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal specification defining performance standards for civil aviation use. On August 3, a consortium led by Wilcox Electric received an FAA contract to develop and field the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to enhance GPS signals. (See June 2, 1994 and March 29, 1996.)
20000801: An interim final rule went into effect requiring aircraft operators to pay fees for air traffic control services provided to aircraft that operated in U.S. airspace, but did not take off or land in the United States. The Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996 provided FAA the authority to charge fees to aircraft conducting U.S. overflights. (See June 5, 2000; August 20, 2001.)
20050801: FAA requested the air traffic control towers at all airports to assess their current need to use the taxi into position and hold procedure. This procedure was designed to allow aircraft to taxi onto a runway and hold while awaiting clearance from the tower. Facilities needing to employ the procedure were asked to confirm and verify that operational requirement.
20100801: President Barrack Obama signed the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act. The bipartisan bill extended aviation programs and excise taxes through September 30. It also required airline pilots to have a FAA airline Transport pilot license and increased the minimum number of flight hours from 250 to 1500. The bill also extended aviation programs and excise taxes for two months, or for the remainder of fiscal year 2010. (See November 23, 2009; September 14, 2010.)
20110801: Effective this date, air traffic controllers could once again ride in aircraft cockpits with commercial pilots as part of a voluntary education program. The flight deck training program, designed to improve safety by giving air traffic controllers a greater understanding of the pilots’ experience and workload in the cockpit, replaced a previous program called familiarization training, or FAM trip, which was suspended in 2001. Controllers were limited to two training trips in a calendar year instead of the eight permitted under FAM policies, and controllers could not fly to the same airport on consecutive flights. A controller had to get advanced approval to participate and had to submit an itinerary, as well as medical and security information. Foreign travel was not permitted.
20160801: Virgin Galactic announced FAA’s office of commercial space had granted it a commercial license to operate its SpaceShipTwo. The license reauthorized Virgin Galactic to continue its commercialization process after its spaceship broke up during a rocket-powered test flight over California’s Mojave Desert in October 2014. (See October 31, 2014; May 24, 2018.)