Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19410818: President Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways would operate an air ferry service to fly aircraft, cargo, and passengers to the African continent in support of the Allied war effort. At the President’s direction, CAA on September 10 granted temporary authority to Pan American to operate the ferry service, flying from Miami, Fla., via Puerto Rico and Brazil, to Liberia and Nigeria. The rights would expire in 5 years, or 6 months after the Secretary of War notified CAA that the service was no longer required.
19420818: Letters from the Acting Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of Commerce formalized the decision that CAA would perform its war support functions in a civilian status.
19660818: FAA commissioned the nation’s 300th civilian airport traffic control tower at Hillsboro, Ore. Dedication ceremonies were held on August 28.
19970818: A final rule requiring that digital flight data recorders (black box) collect more information went into effect. The number of specific areas of flight information, called data parameters, increased to 88 for newly manufactured aircraft and increased from 11 to 17 or 18 for older aircraft. (See July 16, 1996; May 3, 1999.)
20030818: Effective this date, FAA amended flight data recorder regulations by expanding the recording specifications of certain data parameters for specified airplanes, and by adding aircraft models to the lists of aircraft excepted from the 1997 regulations. In addition, this rule corrected specifications in an operating rule appendix that were inadvertently omitted in previous actions. These changes were necessary to allow the continued operation of certain aircraft that could not meet the existing recorder criteria without incurring a cost-prohibitive retrofit. (See January 8, 2000; February 24, 2005.)
20040818: Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced that domestic airlines serving O’Hare had agreed to a voluntary limit of 88 scheduled arrivals per hour between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. The new limit on scheduled arrivals during peak hours, effective November 1, brought schedules more in line with O’Hare’s capacity and was expected to cut the amount of time lost due to delays by 20 percent. The agreement, the result of talks directed by Secretary Mineta and chaired by FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, was expected to cut delay times by imposing a limit on new flights that airlines planned to add in November. United and American Airlines, which were then operating 86 percent of flights at O’Hare, offered the largest reductions. United agreed to reduce 20 arrivals while American canceled 17 incoming flights scheduled between noon and 8:00 p.m. Other airlines with fewer operations also agreed to reduce or change schedules to cut delays. (See August 4, 2004.)
20100818: FAA selected New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, to lead a new Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. The center, a partnership of academia, industry, and government, was established to address current and future challenges for commercial space transportation. The center’s research and development efforts would focus on: space launch operations and traffic management; launch vehicle systems, payloads, technologies, and operations; commercial human space flight; and space commerce (including space law, space insurance, space policy, and space regulation). The FAA entered into 50-50 cost-sharing cooperative agreements with the new center, and planned to invest at least $1 million per year for the initial five years of the center’s operations. (See January 28, 2004; August 3, 2010; September 30, 2010.)
20140818: The World Health Organization urged countries affected by Ebola (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) to conduct exit screening at international airports, seaports, and land crossings. The recommendation came from a task force that included health officials, the International Civil Aviation Organization; the International Air Transport Association representing 240 airlines; and Airports Council International. (See October 11, 2014.)
20140818: FAA issued a notice to airmen restricting U.S. operators from flying in the Damascus flight information region, which included all of Syria. It advised U.S. operators against flying in that airspace and required them to contact FAA before operating in that airspace. Because of the presence of anti-aircraft weapons among the extremist groups and ongoing fighting in various locations throughout Syria, there was a continuing significant potential threat to civil aviation operating in Syrian airspace. (See December 30, 2014; December 10, 2018.)
20200818: FAA announced it had selected 26 schools to participate in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Collegiate Training Initiative (UAS-CTI), which it launched in April. The program allowed educational institutions to collaborate with the agency to prepare students for careers in UAS. Participating institutions would work with FAA, other participants, general industry, local governments, law enforcement, and regional economic development entities to address labor force needs. FAA selected the following schools to participate in the program
* Blue Mountain Community College, Pendleton, Oregon
* Central Oregon Community College, Bend, Oregon
* Dakota College, Bottineau, North Dakota
* Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, Prescott, AZ, and Worldwide Campus
* Green River College, Auburn, Washington
* Gulf Coast Community College, Panama City, Florida
* Hazard Community and Technical College, Hazard, Kentucky
* Hinds Community College, Bolton, Mississippi
* Idaho State University, Poncatello, Idaho
* Indiana State University, Terra Haute, Indiana
* MiraCosta College, Carlsbad, California
* Mountain Empire Community College, Big Stone Gap, Virginia
* Mountwest Community and Technical College, Huntington, West Virginia
* Niagara Community College, Sanborn, New York
* North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
* Northeastern Technical College, Cheraw, South Carolina
* Northland Community and Technical College, Thief River Falls, Minnesota
* Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse, Michigan
* Oklahoma City Community College, Stillwater, Oklahoma
* PaloMarch College District, San Marcos, California
* Santa Rosa Junior College, Windsor, California
* Southwestern College, Chula Vista, California
* Tallahassee Community College, Tallahassee, Florida
* University of Maine at Augusta, August, Maine
* University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota
* WSU Tech, Wichita, Kansas
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-254) required the FAA to establish a collegiate training initiative program relating to unmanned aircraft and to establish a process to designate consortia of public, two-year institutions of higher education as Community and Technical College Centers of Excellence in Small Unmanned Aircraft System Technology Training. On September 16, FAA announced 15 more schools have been selected to participate in the program.
The new schools included:
* Austin Community College, Austin, Texas
* Atlantic Cape Community College, Mays Landing, New Jersey
* Big Bend Community College, Moses Lake, Washington
* Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, Martinsburg, West Virginia
* Carroll Community College, Westminster, Maryland
* Clark State Community College, Springfield, Ohio
* Elizabeth City State University, Elizabeth City, North Carolina
* Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
* Fullerton College, Fullerton California
* Kansas State Polytechnic, Salina, Kansas
* Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia
* Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
* Mitchell Technical College, Mitchell, South Dakota
* Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, Mount Gay, West Virginia
* Yavapai College, Prescott, Arizona
20220818: FAA awarded $2.7 million for drone research to support growing research on their effectiveness in assisting disaster preparedness and emergencies. Awardees included: the University of Vermont, the University of Alabama Huntsville, New Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, and Kansas State University. The funding was part of the Alliance for Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE).
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This Day in FAA History: August 18th
