This Day in FAA History: October 24th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19291024: A stock market convulsion gripped Wall Street. The initial crash was followed by another severe break on October 29, and by a continuing slide that heralded the onset of the Great Depression. Aviation stocks, as others, were strongly affected.
The Depression’s impact on the budget of the Aeronautics Branch was not immediate. To get underway in fiscal 1927, the Branch had received $550,000, and this was increased to $3,791,500 in fiscal 1928 and $5,575,400 in fiscal 1929. The increases continued after the Depression began: fiscal 1930, $6,676,320; fiscal 1931, $9,208,030; and fiscal 1932, $10,362,300.
The economizing ax fell in fiscal 1933, when Congress reduced the Aeronautics Branch allocation to $8,533,500. For fiscal 1934, the Branch received only $7,660,780., and this was cut still further by the Bureau of the Budget, which limited actual expenditures to $5,172,500–the smallest of the Depression budgets for aeronautic activities. The nation had passed the lowest point of the Depression in March 1933, however, and the budgets of Bureau of Air Commerce–as the Aeronautics Branch was renamed on July 1, 1934–began a rising trend that lasted into World War II. (See July 1, 1937).
19331024: In an unprecedented feat for air transports, a Douglas DC-2 and a Boeing 247D finished second and third in a field of twenty in the MacRobertson International Air Race. The 18,500 pound DC-2 negotiated the course from Mildenhall, England, to Melbourne, Australia, in 90 hours 13 minutes. It finished 19 hours 41 minutes behind the first place finisher, a de Havilland DH-88 Comet, a long-range twin-engine racer designed expressly for the competition. Even more remarkable, the Douglas carried three revenue passengers and 900 pounds of mail and made 18 stops along a doglegged course approximately 1,000 miles longer than that flown by the Comet. The superiority of American transports over those of British or European manufacture was demonstrated by advanced design features such as NACA cowls, all-metal stressed-skin construction, light-alloy fuselage, a single low wing, retractable landing gear, and variable pitch propellers.
19451024: A DC-4 operated by American Export Airlines landed at Hurn Airfield, England, after a flight from New York, inaugurating the first scheduled landplane commercial service between North America and Europe. (Pan American had earlier begun the first regular seaplane transatlantic service: see June 28, 1939.) After beginning the new service, American Export adopted the name American Overseas Airlines on November 10, 1945. (See June 1, 1945, and September 25, 1950.)
19471024: In-flight fire caused the crash of a United Air Lines DC-6 at Bryce Canyon, Utah, with the loss of all 52 persons aboard. On November 11, another in-flight fire caused an American Airlines DC-6 to make an emergency landing at Gallup, N.M. Immediately following this second incident, the three airlines using DC-6 aircraft voluntarily withdrew them from service. The CAB determined that the fires had been caused by fuel leaking into the cabin heater system through an air intake scoop. After the problem had been remedied, the DC-6 returned to service in March 1948.
19551024: United Airlines’ flight engineers went on strike, due to the carrier’s decision to require all future flight engineers to possess a pilot’s certificate. After 51 days, the strike was broken when pilots belonging to the Air Line Pilots Association crossed the picket lines of the flight engineers union to occupy the seats vacated by the strikers. (See June 15, 1947 and November 8-14, 1956.)
19781024: President Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 allowing immediate fare reductions of up to 70 percent without CAB approval, and the automatic entry of new airlines into routes not protected by other air carriers. CAB’s authority over fares, routes, and mergers was to be phased out entirely before 1983, and, unless Congress acted, CAB itself would shut down by January 1, 1985. The prospective abolition of CAB brought to a culmination the work of Chairman Alfred E. Kahn at that agency (see June 10, 1977). Moreover, by October 1978, the major emphasis of deregulation had changed from an ideological campaign against government regulation to a key element in the President’s effort to curb inflation. This was highlighted by the President’s appointment of Kahn as head of his anti-inflation program, which was announced on this date.
This day also ended the week-long vigil of twenty-two airline representatives who had lined up outside CAB headquarters to submit first-come-first-serve applications for dormant airline routes under the terms of the new act. By the end of the year, CAB had awarded 248 new airline routes to these applicants. Smaller communities, from which the airlines might wish to shift their operations, were guaranteed essential air services for 10 years under the act, with a government subsidy if necessary. Along with the subsidies for smaller-city service, the act provided for the inclusion of commuter airlines in the FAA equipment loan guarantee program and in uniform methods for establishing joint fares between air carriers. It also authorized the use of larger aircraft by commuter airlines. These special provisions for commuter airlines boosted their already-booming growth rates, and led to important new FAA regulations later in 1978 (see December 1, 1978).
The Airline Deregulation Act also revived the aircraft loan guaranty program (see September 7, 1977), raising the total amount that could be guaranteed for any eligible participant from $30 million to $100 million, expanding the eligible participants to include charter air carriers, commuter air carriers, and intrastate air carriers, and extending the term of eligible loans to 15 years. Congress withdrew authority for the program in 1983, however, and FAA ceased issuing new loan guarantees after June 30 of that year. Over its life, the program had guaranteed 106 loans totaling $900 million. Twelve airlines had defaulted on 23 of the loans for a loss of $182 million, but FAA had been able to recover $132 million.
19831024: FAA began testing a “scatter plan” aimed at more equitable distribution of noise from operations at Washington National Airport. Implemented at the request of the Metropolitan Council of Governments, the plan resulted in a high level of complaints from areas that had previously experienced little noise. Even after the test’s end on January 7, 1984, some citizens claimed that the flights had not returned to their normal routes along the Potomac River.
20001024: FAA issued a final rule that established a specific licensing and safety requirement for operating a commercial space launch site, whether the site was located on or off a federal launch range. The regulation outlined who must obtain a commercial launch site operator’s license, set application requirements, and delineated licensee responsibilities. The rule followed and built upon prior rulemakings that governed operation of reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) and reentry and recovery of RLVs and reentry vehicles, as well as a companion rule covering the financial responsibility requirements, such as insurance, for licensed reentry activities. As a set, the three rules completed the process of establishing FAA’s regulatory oversight authorized by congressional legislation passed in 1998 that gave FAA responsibility for licensing and regulating reentry of returning space vehicles and reentry sites. Previously, the Commercial Space Launch Act had provided authority only over the launching of commercial launch vehicles, not their return to Earth. The expanded authority was needed to bring the return under the safety regulatory regime of FAA. (See November 9, 1999; November 28, 2000.)
20001024: FAA awarded a contract to Sensis Corporation to develop the Airport Surface Detection Equipment, version X (ASDE-X), a traffic management system that provides seamless coverage of the airport surface, as well as aircraft identification, to air traffic controllers. ASDE-X uses a combination of surface movement radar, transponder multilateration, and sensors to display aircraft position labeled with flight call-signs on air traffic control tower displays. (See June 14, 2000; February 29, 2004.)
20061024: Mary Peters was sworn in as the 15th Secretary of Transportation. (See July 7, 2006.)
20141024: Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at Google, parachuted from a balloon near the top of the stratosphere. He fell faster than the speed of sound and broke the world altitude record. A balloon filled with 35,000 cubic feet of helium had lifted Eustace to an altitude of more than 25 miles. Eustace, who wore a special space suit, cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device. His descent took approximately 15 minutes at speeds which peaked at 822 miles per hour.
20221024: FAA issued guidance on how to become a FAA-recognized community-based organization for recreational drone flying. Under federal law, recreational drone flyers must follow the safety guidelines of a FAA-recognized community-based organization. The organization must develop its safety guidelines in coordination with FAA, and an applicant may wish to tailor them to a particular type of uncrewed aircraft.