This Day in FAA History: May 3rd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19550503: Preliminary plans were announced for sending CAA specialists to assist Pakistan in developing its airways system under an agreement between Pakistan and the U.S. Foreign Operations Administration.
19700503: Upgraded certification requirements for aviation maintenance technician schools (formerly called “aviation mechanic schools”) became effective. The changes, which included new curriculum requirements for both certification and operations, were designed to reflect recent technological advances in aviation.
19710503: FAA’s Management Training School at Cameron College, Lawton, Okla., admitted its first class. The school’s establishment had been recommended by the Corson Committee (see January 29, 1970). FAA required all supervisors and middle managers to attend an appropriate three-week course, and refresher courses were offered. Some 50,000 FAA personnel attended the school before it closed on July 3, 1987. (See July 1, 1972 and March 14, 1986.)
19940503: Vice President Albert Gore and Transportation Secretary Federico Peña announced the Clinton Administration’s proposal to create a new Air Traffic Services Corporation to operate, maintain, and modernize the air traffic system. (See September 7, 1993, and January 6, 1994.)
Under the proposal, 38,000 FAA employees involved in providing air traffic services would become part of a new not-for-profit government corporation. Support for the corporation would be derived from fees levied upon commercial aviation, subject to approval by the Department of Transportation. The Department would maintain additional oversight through membership on the corporation’s board of directors, on which airspace users would also be represented. FAA would continue to exercise safety oversight over civil aviation, including the new corporation.
On the same day that Gore and Peña unveiled the plan, President Clinton wrote letters urging Congress to make the new corporation a reality. During the following months, however, Congress considered a variety of plans for restructuring FAA. These proposals included calls to make the agency independent of the Department of Transportation. (See September 12, 1995.)
19990503: FAA, responding to pressure from federal safety officials, announced that it would require a major upgrade of aircraft flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders to provide better information after accidents. In particular, the FAA would require new on-board sensors to determine movements of the Boeing 737 rudder, which had been listed as the probable cause of two crashes. Administrator Jane Garvey revealed these plans during a panel discussion at a National Transportation Safety Board symposium on flight recorders in which NTSB Chairman Jim Hall had criticized the FAA for not responding quickly enough to his agency’s recommendations. (See August 18, 1997; January 13, 1999; January 8, 2000; September 14, 2000.)
20010503: FAA began providing a new service that used wireless devices to inform the public of aviation delays. Travelers with access to with pagers, cell phones, or personal digital assistants (PDA), could subscribe and obtain real-time airport status information via e-mail.
20100503: FAA named Julie Oettinger, managing director for international and regulatory affairs at United Airlines, to head the newly reunited Office of Aviation Policy, International Affairs and Environment. Prior to joining United Airlines, Oettinger served as assistant general counsel at US Airways from 1998 to 2002. From 1990 to 1998 — and then again from 2002 to 2003 — Oettinger served as an attorney advisor in the Legal Advisor’s Office at the U.S. Department of State.
20130503: FAA proposed a new policy aimed at providing better handling of a wide range of certification applications. The draft policy set the maximum delay that the agency could apply to applications for type certificates, amended type certificates, supplemental type certificates and several other approvals, including parts manufacturer approval. Under the draft policy, all projects would be acted on when FAA received an application, and the maximum delay in starting a project would be based on a metric each certification office set to perform a project, plus 90 days. First in the queue would be higher-priority projects, based on the highest value of a safety index developed by FAA. FAA based the draft policy, in part, on input the agency received after posting a request for comments in September 2011. Congress had mandated a broader review of the agency’s certification processes under the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. In response, the agency co-chaired an aviation rulemaking committee that reviewed existing processes and made recommendations in February. (See February 14, 2012; December 11, 2013.)
20220503: Norman Mineta died. He served as Secretary of Transportation from January 25, 2001-July, 7, 2006, the longest-serving Secretary in the department’s history.