This Day in FAA History: May 8th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19450508: President Truman proclaimed the end of the war in Europe.
19460508: The Bell Aircraft Corporation’s Model 47 became the first helicopter to receive a CAA airworthiness type certificate, authorizing mass production.
19670508: The prevailing preference for flying rather than sailing among transoceanic travelers was pointedly emphasized as the Cunard Steamship Company announced retirement of the world’s two largest passenger liners, RMS Queen Elizabeth and the RMS Queen Mary. (The 81,237-ton Queen Mary completed her 1,000th and final transatlantic voyage for Cunard on September 27, 1967; the Queen Elizabeth completed her final transatlantic voyage on November 6, 1968.) (See Calendar year 1966.)
19690508: The Martin Marietta X-24A rocket-powered, manned, lifting-body research aircraft made a successful 4-minute glider (unpowered) flight at Edwards AFB, Calif. The X-24A was released from underneath the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress at 45,000 feet. The aircraft made its first powered flight on March 19, 1970. Development of the X-24A came as part of Martin Marietta’s program to develop a maneuvering manned re-entry vehicle able to perform as a spacecraft in orbit, fly in Earth’s atmosphere like an aircraft, and land at conventional airports.
19700508: Upgraded type-certification standards for new large transport aircraft became effective. The new airworthiness standards resulted from several years of government/industry study and development. They related to four major certification areas: flight requirements; systems and equipment; airframe; and powerplant.
19880508: A fire at an Illinois Bell Telephone Co. switching center drastically limited communications between the towers at Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports, the Aurora air route traffic control center, and aircraft. The 56 hour outage resulted in major air traffic delays throughout the country (see January 4, 1991.)
19990508: The engineered materials arresting system installed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport successfully stopped a Saab 340 commuter aircraft that overran the runway. (See August 21, 1998; May 30, 2003.)
20080508: FAA announced it had created a new position within the Air Traffic Organization. The new senior vice president for NextGen and Operations Planning, Victoria Cox, managed the organizations she previously managed as the vice president for Operations Planning, as well as the Joint Planning and Development Office. (See October 1, 2007; October 3, 2008.)
20130508: FAA announced controllers at the San Francisco, Houston, and Memphis international airports would have a new tool to reduce delays beginning on May 15, May 20, and August 5, respectively, as part of a one-year FAA pilot program. The wake turbulence mitigation for departures (WTMD) was a crosswind-based system that enabled closely spaced parallel runway departures to take place without wake turbulence constraints. The system allowed for the crosswind-enabled elimination of wake turbulence separation minima when heavy/B757 aircraft departed the downwind runway and any aircraft followed departing on the upwind runway. WTMD required favorable wind conditions for a specific airport’s runway configuration and a minimum ceiling and visibility of 1,000 feet altitude above ground level (AGL) and 3 statute miles (SM). The WTMD system used wind information at the surface and incrementally up to about 1,200 feet AGL to ensure actual crosswinds and a conservative forecast of future crosswinds were sufficiently strong to allow the reduced separation operations. WTMD notified air traffic control supervisors when one of the closely spaced parallel runway (upwind runway) could be used as wake independent from heavy/B757 aircraft departing from the parallel (downwind) runway and allowed them to enable the WTMD procedure. (See November 1, 2012.)
20150508: FAA selected a Mississippi State University team as FAA’s center of excellence (COE) for unmanned aircraft systems. The COE focused on research, education, and training in areas critical to safe and successful integration of UAS into the nation’s airspace. The team brought together 15 of the nation’s leading UAS and aviation universities that had a proven commitment to UAS research and development as well as the necessary resources to provide the matching contribution to the government’s investment. Congress appropriated $5 million for the 5-year agreement with the COE, which would be matched by the team members. In addition to Mississippi State University, the other team members included: Drexel University; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Kansas State University; the University of Kansas; Montana State University; New Mexico State University; North Carolina State University; Oregon State University; University of Alabama, Huntsville; University of Alaska, Fairbanks; University of North Dakota; and Wichita State University. (See May 6, 2015; June 14, 2015.)
20200508: FAA announced it had assigned a Category 2 rating to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) because it did not comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards under the FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program. A Category 2 IASA rating meant that laws or regulations lacked the necessary requirements to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, or that a civil aviation authority was deficient in one or more areas, including technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, inspection procedures or resolution of safety concerns. Although the OECS’s carriers could continue existing service to the United States, they were not allowed to establish new service to the United States. The OECS provided aviation safety oversight for members Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines. (See December 13, 2019.)