This Day in FAA History: December 9th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19811209: President Reagan rescinded a three-year prohibition of any Federal employment of controllers dismissed for participation in the PATCO strike (see August 3, 1981); however, the fired controllers were still barred from employment with FAA.
19941209: For the first time, FAA certified an explosives detection system, the Invision CTX-5000. The system used computed tomography and high-quality x-ray technology to automatically locate suspicious objects in baggage. (See December 23, 1996)
19981209: FAA issued an airworthiness directive ordering inspection and possible replacement of electrical wiring above the forward passenger doors of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. The order required a one-time visual inspection within ten days to detect problems such as nicks, fraying or chafing in the wiring above the left and right forward passenger doors. As part of the inquiry into the Swissair 111 crash off Nova Scotia in September, FAA learned that damaged electrical wires were found near the forward passenger doors of an MD-11 during regularly scheduled heavy maintenance. Further examination showed that, when the doors were raised to the open position, sliding panels above the doors moved inward and could have chafed the electrical wiring in those areas. The condition, if not fixed, might have led to an electrical fire in the passenger cabin. (See November 12, 1998; January 28, 1999.)
19981209: FAA and Chile’s Director General of Civil Aeronautics completed the first test flights in Chile demonstrating the capabilities and benefits of the Wide Area Augmentation System installation at the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport. (See October 15, 1998; January 5, 1999.)
20031209: FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) signed a two-year contract extension that expanded pay-for-performance to include air traffic controllers and provided potential savings of several million dollars. The contract extension increased the number of agency employees whose pay was tied partly to performance from 37 percent to 75 percent. The pay for performance compensation system for over 15,000 air traffic controllers was based on safety and capacity targets set forth in FAA’s strategic Flight Plan. The targets included reducing operational errors and runway incursions and increasing on-time performance and arrival efficiency rates. FAA and the union also agreed that, when a provision binding FAA to maintain a fixed number of controllers each year expired at the end of September, the agency could adjust staffing levels based on actual workload. This contract action was initiated following direction from Congress and the Department of Transportation Inspector General to exert greater cost control over air traffic control operations. The current contract was ratified in 1998. FAA expected to begin negotiations on a new agreement with NATCA in early 2005. (See January 7, 2003; July 13, 2005.)
20091209: FAA announced a new service to provide the public information about airport delays. The Airport Status and Delays web service, registered on Data.gov, combined FAA information about ground delays, airport closures, ground stops, and arrival or departure delays with local weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
20121209: A Learjet 25 (N345MC) carrying Los Angeles-based Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera crashed in northern Mexico approximately 10 minutes after departing the airport in Monterey, Mexico. Six others, including 2 pilots, were on the plane. There were no survivors. NTSB assisted in the accident investigation. The 43-year old aircraft was owned by Starwood Management of Las Vegas, Nevada.
20131209: FAA renewed Spaceport America’s license to host suborbital and horizontal rocket launches. The renewal became effective on December 15 and would last through December 15, 2018. (See December 15, 2013.)
20131209: American Airlines exited bankruptcy and completed its merger with US Airways. The merged company, with its new stock symbol, AAL, began trading on the NASDAC. (See December 7, 2013; October 20, 2014.)
20151209: United Airlines announced it would end its flights from Washington Dulles International Airport to Dubai on January 25, 2016. United said in a statement: “Even though we successfully operated the Washington-Dubai route for the past seven years, the entry of subsidized carriers such as Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways into the Washington, D.C., market has created an imbalance between supply and demand to the United Arab Emirates.” (See October 28, 2015; May 11, 2018.)
20201209: Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aéreas began flying the Max, the earliest of any global airline, on domestic routes from Sao Paulo. On December 29, American Airlines became the first U.S. airline to fly scheduled Max flights. (See December 1, 2020.)
20201209: A full-size prototype of SpaceX’s heavy-lift Starship launch vehicle soared high into the atmosphere in a test flight over South Texas, and successfully guided itself to a beachside landing site before exploding at touchdown. (See November 15, 2020; April 8, 2021.)
20211209: FAA announced grant awards totaling more than $1.4 million to five universities to undertake research to build sustainable aviation fuel supply chains in different regions across the United States. Since 2014, the FAA has invested more than $13 million in the effort being conducted by ASCENT, the FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment. The research teams on this project include
* Washington State University: $412,000 – to examine the potential for retrofitting existing pulp and paper mills, sugarcane mills, dry corn ethanol plants, and petroleum refineries to enable jet fuel production from forest harvests, waste materials, and various crops, and evaluate supply chains for their ability to create jobs, aid U.S. industry, and add resiliency to the national liquid fuel supply.
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $450,000 – to consider the economic and environmental sustainability of a range of fuel pathways, including the coproduction of sustainable aviation fuel in existing petroleum refineries.
* University of Tennessee: $100,000 – to support the development of an industry to produce sustainable aviation fuel using woody biomass feedstock in the Central Appalachian Region.
* University of Hawaii: $100,000 – to develop a model for tropical oil supply chains and assess gasification systems to produce fuel and/or hydrogen from construction and demolition landfill waste.
* Purdue University: $350,000 – to understand the land use impacts of sustainable aviation fuels on greenhouse gas emissions. (See September 13, 2013; December 1, 2021.)