This Day in FAA History: August 17th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19540817: Administrator Frederick B. Lee placed in effect a reorganization of CAA (see June 2, 1949). He established a position of Assistant Administrator for Operations in the Office of the Administrator to exercise direct supervision over the Office of Airports, Office of Federal Airways, Office of Aviation Safety, and the Washington National Airport. The administrative staff offices were placed under an Assistant Administrator for Administration, also responsible for supervising the Aeronautical Center. An Assistant Administrator for Program Coordination (later redesignated Assistant Administrator for Planning, Research, and Development) supervised the Technical Development and Evaluation Center. The line of authority was officially defined as running through the program directors to the regional administrators. Effective January 1, 1955, Lee gave the program directors authority to take individual personnel actions involving professional or technical employees in any grade level at headquarters or in the field. (See September 4, 1956.)
19780817: Ben L. Abruzzo, Maxie L. Anderson, and Larry M. Newman made history’s first balloon crossing of the Atlantic. Flying in a helium-filled balloon dubbed the Double Eagle II, they lifted off from Presque Isle, Maine, and landed near the village of Miserey, France, 50 miles west of Paris.
19900817: A portion of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) was called up for the first time in history as the Defense Department activated CRAF Level 1. Participating airlines provided aircraft and crews to expand U.S. airlift capability for the Operation Desert Shield deployment in the Middle East. (See August 2, 1990, and September 25, 1990.)
19940817: President Clinton signed the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994. Under the new law, manufacturers could not be held liable for accidents happening more than 18 years after the production of general aviation aircraft, engines, or parts. The legislation was followed by an upturn for this sector of industry.
19960817: To combat the hazard of wake turbulence, FAA implemented new separation standards for aircraft. The agency increased the required separation for small aircraft traveling behind a Boeing 757 from four to five nautical miles. At the same time, FAA revised the definition of the three aircraft weight categories used in setting separations to avoid wake turbulence: small (formerly 12,500 lb. or less, changed to 41,000 lb. or less; large (formerly 12,500-300,000 lb, changed to 41,000-255,000 lb.); and heavy (formerly 300,00 lb. or more, changed to 255,00 lb. or more). As a result, some 57 aircraft types moved from the large to small category. (See November 1, 1975, and May 20, 1994.)
20090817: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to update FAR Part 23 standards to accommodate new light and very light jets. The proposal would eliminate the exemptions, special conditions, and equivalent levels of safety findings the agency used to certify this class of aircraft under Part 23. The proposal would codify the current practice of certificating multiengine turbojets weighing up to and including 19,000 pounds.
20160817: FAA selected Brunswick Executive Airport in Brunswick, ME, to participate in the fiscal year 2016 military airport program (MAP). The MAP used federal funds to convert former military airports to civilian use and supported improvements to joint-use airports. The MAP funding was a set-aside of the airport improvement program that helped increase civilian aviation capacity by financing projects such as building or rehabilitating parking lots, fuel farms, hangars, utility systems, access roads, cargo buildings, and other airfield projects at former military airports. (See July 22, 2015; June 9, 2017.)
20180817: FAA granted Spaceport Colorado its operator license making it the 11th spaceport in the country. Located at Front Range Airport, the new spaceport could accommodate space planes that take off like a normal jet and then engage rockets. The airport said it planned to change its name to Colorado Air and Space Port. (See June 30, 2015; May 5, 2020.)
20200817: FAA, Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued guidance to help non-federal public and private entities better understand the federal laws and regulations that might apply to the use of capabilities to detect and mitigate threats posed by UAS operations. The “Advisory on the Application of Federal Laws to the Acquisition and Use of Technology to Detect and Mitigate Unmanned Aircraft Systems” provided a brief overview of various provisions of the U.S. criminal code enforced by DOJ, as well as federal laws and regulations related to aviation safety and efficiency, transportation and airport security, and the radio frequency spectrum administered respectively by the FAA, DHS, and FCC.