This Day in FAA History: May 23rd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260523: Western Air Express (WAE) became one of the first U.S. airlines to offer regular passenger service, flying from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City via Las Vegas. WAE had begun flying on April 17 as the fourth carrier to begin operations under a new air mail contract system that became the major source of income for the era’s small but growing airline industry (see June 3, 1926).
Over twelve years earlier, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line had offered the world’s first regularly scheduled airline service using heavier-than-air craft. This enterprise lasted for only the first three months of 1914. On March 1, 1925, T. Claude Ryan’s Los Angeles-San Diego Air Line had begun the first scheduled passenger service operated wholly over the U.S. mainland and throughout the year.
19330523: Clarence M. Young resigned as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, effective June 15. (See June 10, 1933.)
19480523: The Secretaries of Defense and Commerce announced preliminary agreement to set up an Air Navigation Development Board (ANDB). The action resulted from a six-month study by the Research and Development Board of the National Military Establishment. In October and November, the two secretaries signed a charter of agreement concerning the Board, and the Secretary of Commerce formalized its creation with an order dated January 19, 1949. The ANDB’s mission was to formulate a unified program of research and development of “aids for a common national system of air navigation and air traffic control” that would serve both civil and nontactical military aviation but be capable of integration with any air defense system established. The Board was also charged with supervising research and development projects for the common system. While the ANDB investigated the best technology for the common system, CAA continued deployment of VORs, and the Navy continued development of its tactical air navigation system (TACAN), which it had begun to develop in 1947. Military exigencies brought on by the Korean War in 1950 resulted in a deemphasis of common system development and an acceleration of TACAN development. (See January 1954 and October 29, 1957.)
19810523: At its annual convention, in New Orleans, PATCO set a June 21 deadline for reaching agreement on a new contract with FAA. PATCO President Robert Poli said if agreement was not reached by that date the union would poll its members for a strike vote. Newspapers quoted Poli as vowing that the “the skies will be silent” if FAA’s negotiators did not “come to their senses.” (See April 28, 1981, and June 18, 1981.)
19830523: The first aircraft to navigate across the Atlantic entirely by use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) landed at Paris. The Rockwell International Saberliner had made en route stopovers due to the lack of continuous satellite coverage by the experimental system, which the Defense Department had been developing since the 1970s. In the April 1984 edition of the National Airspace System (NAS) Plan, FAA noted that GPS would serve as a future supplemental navigation system for civil aviation, in addition to its primary military role. The Plan therefore included FAA deployment of GPS signal monitors. (See April 1, 1991.)
19910523: The FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee, which had been established on February 5, 1991, held its first meeting.
19940523: FAA began operational testing of the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS) at Memphis airport. ITWS was designed to combine data from FAA and National Weather Service sensors and radars. The system would present predictions on potentially hazardous weather to air traffic control personnel via easily-understood graphics and text. On January 29, 1997, FAA selected Raytheon to build ITWS and to install and maintain the system at 34 sites covering 45 airports.
20010523: FAA ordered operators of DC-9/MD-88 series and MD-90-30 series aircraft to inspect the wiring of small static port heaters for chafing, loose connections, and evidence of arcing, and to make necessary repairs. These heaters keep ice from forming on devices that measure air pressure. Operators had to determine if the surrounding insulation were covered with metalized Mylar (polyethyleneteraphthalate). If so, the Mylar had to be removed and/or replaced with Tedlar-covered insulation, or other appropriate action had to be taken. The airworthiness directive came in response to an incident that occurred on September 17, 1999, in which a Delta Air Lines MD-88 experienced a fire in the forward cargo compartment shortly after takeoff from Northern Kentucky International Airport in Covington, Kentucky.
20070523: FAA announced its annual Spring/Summer Plan, called the airspace flow program. The program gave airlines the option of either accepting delays for scheduled flights that would have to fly through storms or flying longer routes to maneuver around adverse conditions. The agency successfully launched the program in 2006 at seven locations in the Northeast. On bad weather days at major airports in the region, delays fell by nine percent compared to the year before. The 2007 plan targeted 18 locations around the country where heavy traffic and weather created the most system delays.
20070523: FAA announced deployment of adaptive compression, a new software program that would help to ensure that airports affected by bad weather would receive as many flights as could safely fly to them. When storms caused flights to be delayed or canceled, the software program would fill automatically vacant arrival slots with the next available flight. Deployed in March, the software tool effectively reduced delays to save time and money for airlines and passengers.
20070523: FAA published a final rule in the Federal Register modifying Part 158. The change added debt service and air carrier bankruptcy requirements and other miscellaneous changes mandated by the Vision 100 – Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act.
20100523: Northwest Beaches International Airport opened in Panama City, FL – the first new commercial passenger airport to open since Denver International Airport opened in 1995.