Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19460527: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Causby v. United States that flights over private land represent the taking of an air easement if they are “so low and so frequent as to be a direct and immediate interference with the enjoyment and use of the land.” Causby owned a small chicken farm near a municipal airport used by military aircraft that passed over his property at an altitude below 100 feet. The noise from these flights frightened the chickens, caused a drop in production, and eventually forced Causby to close down his chicken-raising operation. The Court found that the United States had taken an air easement over Causby’s property that interfered with its normal use. Causby’s Fifth Amendment rights had been violated, it held, because his property had been put to public use without just compensation. (See December 13, 1956, and March 5, 1962.)
19560527: The Sud-Aviation SE 210 Caravelle made its first flight. The first short-haul jet plane to go into general use, the Caravelle’s rear-mounted engine configuration set a design trend for jet transports.
19680527: FAA announced that Washington National was the first airport in the U.S. to have its main instrument runway equipped with color-coded centerline lights for greater safety in low-visibility weather. Alternate red and white lights cautioned pilot that they were entering the last 3,000 feet of runway, while all-red centerline lights marked the last 1,000 feet.
19700527: Resumption of flight operations by National Airlines ended the longest complete shutdown of a domestic U.S. airline by a strike to that date. The 116-day strike had begun on January 31.
19720527: Transpo 72, a mammoth display of modern transportation technology, with more than 400 exhibits and demonstrations spread many acres, opened at Dulles International Airport. The Department of Transportation staged the public exposition to provide a marketing showcase for advanced transportation systems, equipment, and concepts, and to increase public awareness of the importance of the transportation industry. The show remained open until June 4.
20100527: FAA issued a final rule mandating performance requirements for aircraft tracking equipment that would be required under NextGen. The avionics would allow aircraft to be controlled and monitored with greater precision and accuracy by a satellite-based system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B). The rule mandated that the broadcast signal meet specific requirements in terms of accuracy, integrity, power, and latency. All planes were required to have the system by 2020. (See October 2, 2007.)
20100527: Northrop Grumman Corporation announced a FAA contract award to provide national maintenance services and logistic support of several critical FAA communications products and systems, including the integrated communications switching system, rapid deployment voice switching system, enhanced terminal voice switch, and small tower voice switch. Under the terms of the contract, Northrop Grumman would ensure the existing communications systems, hardware, firmware, and documentation were supported into the year 2015. The company would supply round-the-clock technical assistance support, including next day delivery of critical repairs. The-five year contract encompassed one base year and four additional one-year options with a not-to-exceed value of $32 million.
20210527: FAA announced the Boeing Company would pay at least $17 million in penalties and undertake multiple corrective actions with its production under a settlement agreement. FAA found that the Chicago-based manufacturer installed equipment on 759 Boeing 737 MAX and NG aircraft that contained sensors not approved for that equipment; submitted approximately 178 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for airworthiness certification when the aircraft potentially had nonconforming slat tracks installed; and improperly marked those slat tracks. Boeing paid the $17 million penalty within 30 days after signing the agreement. If Boeing did not complete certain corrective actions within specific timeframes, FAA would levy up to $10.1 million in additional penalties. The corrective actions included
* Strengthening procedures to ensure that it does not install on aircraft any parts that fail to conform to their approved design
* Performing Safety Risk Management analyses to determine whether its supply-chain oversight processes are appropriate and whether the company is ready to safely increase the Boeing 737 production rate
* Revising its production procedures to enable FAA to observe production rate readiness assessments, the data on which the company bases the assessments, and the results of the assessments
* Taking steps to reduce the chance that it presents to the FAA aircraft with nonconforming parts for airworthiness certification or a Certificate of Export
* Enhancing processes to improve its oversight of parts suppliers (See April 8, 2021; October 14, 2021.)
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This Day in FAA History: May 27th
