This Day in FAA History: October 7th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19591007: Speaking on the theme “Project Friendship,” FAA Administrator Quesada announced that FAA was preparing to assume the operation of about 2,095 military air traffic control facilities at 337 global locations. Under the “Friendship” plan, four types of military functions would be scheduled for transfer: air navigation and air traffic control services; military flight service; air traffic controller training; and facilities flight inspection. FAA and DOD would coordinate time phasing for absorbing military facilities, and implementation of certain parts of the project depended on further understandings with DOD and agreements with foreign countries. (See May 1959, and December 15, 1960.)
19631007: The Learjet 23 made its initial flight. FAA certificated the twin-engine executive aircraft in July of the following year, and the company made its first delivery in October. The success of Model 23 and later Learjets helped to popularize corporate jet transportation.
19831007: A Wall Street Journal article accused FAA Administrator Helms and his associate, Vincent Roggio, of questionable practices in their private business dealings during the past 8 years. The article proved the beginning of highly publicized difficulties for Helms, who in March 1984 filed a damage suit against Roggio and other business associates, then petitioned for bankruptcy. In 1987, Roggio received a prison sentence for fraud. (See December 23, 1983.)
20021007: Controller-Pilot Datalink Communications (CPDLC) became operational at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center. The prototype system, which had been tested for one year at Miami, offered four services
* Transfer of communications (an obligatory data transfer process occurring with a flight’s hand-off from one sector to another).
* Initial contact (an obligatory exchange of information occurring at the time of a crew’s first check-in with an air traffic control facility).
* Exchange of altimeter setting information.
* Exchange of “menu text” to determine what types of messages proved most beneficial to pilots and controllers. (See February 4, 2000.)
20021007: FAA published a final rule requiring Boeing 737 operators to install a newly designed rudder control system and make other changes to the aircraft to accommodate the new system. The new design increased the overall safety of the aircraft by simplifying the rudder system and eliminating a range of failure possibilities. Operators had six year to install the new system. (See November 13, 2001.)
20051007: President George W. Bush signed Public Law 109-87, which authorized the Secretary of Transportation to provide grants-in-aid for emergency repairs to airports damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The law specified that such emergency aid be funded from FY 2005 and 2006 unobligated funds already appropriated to the Airport Improvement Program. The law also waived all federal matching fund requirements.
20101007: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require each certificate holder to establish a safety management system (SMS) for its entire airfield environment (including movement and non-movement areas) to improve safety at airports hosting air carrier operations. A SMS was a formalized approach to managing safety by developing an organization-wide safety policy, developing formal methods of identifying hazards, analyzing and mitigating risk, developing methods for ensuring continuous safety improvement, and creating organization-wide safety promotion strategies. (See March 9, 2009; November 5, 2010.)
20111007: FAA announced approval of the first public use helicopter area navigation routes (RNAV) known as TK routes. The new TK routes connected New York City with Washington, DC. Publishing the RNAV routes on IFR en route low altitude charts offered helicopter operators several benefits, such as dedicated routes and IFR capability. (See August 6, 2007.)
20161007: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to require air carriers conducting domestic, flag, and supplemental operations to provide new-hire pilots with an opportunity to observe flight operations to become familiar with procedures before serving as a flightcrew member in operations; revise the curriculum; provide leadership and command and mentoring training for all pilots in command; and establish pilot professional development committees.
20191007: FAA announced it had completed the operational rollout of ADS-B baseline services with the implementation at the last two of 155 airports slated for the technology, Akron-Canton and Mansfield Lahm Regional airports in Ohio, in September.