This Day in FAA History: October 15th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19341015: The National Airline System, later known as National Airlines, began operations as a Florida intrastate carrier. National’s transformation into a trunk airline began in 1944, when the Civil Aeronautics Board awarded it authority to serve the New York/Florida market.
19591015: FAA adopted an amendment to Civil Air Regulations Part 29 that clarified the physical and mental conditions disqualifying an airman from holding a medical certificate. The disqualifying medical conditions spelled out in the new revision included: diabetes mellitus requiring insulin; coronary artery disease; a history of psychosis; or certain other mental or nervous diseases such as behavior disorders, chronic alcoholism, drug addiction, or epilepsy.
19601015: October 15, 1960-March 1, 1961: FAA successfully tested positive control on an area basis, as distinguished from a route basis (see May 28, 1958 and April 6, 1961), in Operation Pathfinder. As a result, area positive control was continued as a regular service in the location used for the test: airspace between the altitudes of 24,000 and 35,000 feet overlying 120,000 square miles surrounding FAA’s air route traffic control centers at Chicago and Indianapolis. Any aircraft entering this airspace, whether on or off the airways, were required to be equipped with (1) a radio permitting direct communication with controllers at the centers, and (2) a radar beacon transponder for identifying the aircraft, independently of voice communications, on the controllers’ radarscopes. In addition, such aircraft were required to fly on instruments regardless of weather, remaining under control of the centers while in the positive control area. Under these conditions of constant radar surveillance, aircraft required as little as half the standard separation interval.
The launching of Operation Pathfinder was preceded by more than a year of special preparations at the Chicago and Indianapolis centers–including intensive controller training, installation of additional radar and communications equipment, development of air traffic control procedures and phraseology, and an exhaustive analysis of the program through simulation studies.
19621015: Public Law 87-820 transferred final responsibility for the aircraft loan guarantee program from the Civil Aeronautics Board to the Secretary of Commerce. (See September 7, 1957, and June 13, 1968.)
19621015: An experiment testing FAA’s capability to provide air traffic control service to interceptor aircraft of the Air Force’s Air Defense Command (ADC) during military operations got underway in FAA’s Central Region. The experiment was born of the need to end a situation in which two organizations–FAA, controlling civil aircraft, and ADC, controlling its interceptor aircraft–were directing aircraft movements in the same airspace at the same time. This need, which had caused concern for some time, was intensified by the implementation of the area positive control program (see October 15, 1960-March 1, 1961). In the test, ADC’s pilots received air traffic control service from FAA controllers for scramble, flight en route to target, and recovery; for actual intercept, they were handed off to ADC intercept directors. The test ended successfully on April 6, 1963, and pending formalization of the program, FAA continued providing services as during the test period. (See September 9, 1963.)
19651015: FAA established a comprehensive new air traffic controller health program. The previous practice had been to examine only terminal controllers, under standards originally designed for airman certification. Under the new program, every controller and flight service specialist would receive an annual physical examination, including a chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, audiogram, measurement of intraocular tension, and psychological screening. Psychophysiological data generated by these examinations would be used to formulate administrative policies on selection, employment, and retirement.
19661015: President Johnson signed the Department of Transportation Act (Public Law 89-670), bringing 31 previously scattered Federal elements, including FAA, under the wing of one Cabinet Department. The purpose of the new Department was to: assure the coordinated, effective administration of the transportation programs of the Federal Government; facilitate the development and improvement of coordinated transportation service, to be provided by private enterprise to the maximum extent feasible; encourage cooperation of Federal, State, and local governments, carriers, labor, and other interested parties toward the achievement of national transportation objectives; stimulate technological advances in transportation; provide general leadership in the identification and solution of transportation problems; and develop and recommend to the President and the Congress national transportation policies and programs to accomplish these objectives with full consideration of the needs of the public, users, carriers, industry, labor, and the national defense.
The legislation provided for five initial major operating elements within the Department. Four of these organizations were headed by an Administrator: the Federal Aviation Administration (previously the independent Federal Aviation Agency); the Federal Highway Administration; the Federal Railroad Administration; and the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. The new Department also contained the U.S. Coast Guard, which was headed by a Commandant and had previously been part of the Treasury Department.
The DOT Act also created within the new Department a five-member National Transportation Safety Board. The act charged the NTSB with (1) determining the cause or probable cause of transportation accidents and reporting the facts, conditions, and circumstances relating to such accidents; and (2) reviewing on appeal the suspension, amendment, modification, revocation, or denial of any certificate or license issued by the Secretary or by an Administrator. In the exercise of its functions, powers, and duties, the Board was made independent of the Secretary and the other offices and officers of the Department.
Two important differences between President Johnson’s proposal (see March 2, 1966) and the final DOT Act were: (1) the Maritime Administration was left out, and (2) the actions of the FAA Administrator relating to safety, and the decisions of the NTSB, were designated “administratively final” with appeals only to the courts. Three months after signing the DOT Act, Johnson appointed the first Secretary of Transportation (see January 16, 1967). The new Department began full operations on April 1, 1967. (See March 2, 1966, January 16, 1967, and April 1, 1967.)
19761015: A new nationwide standardized format went into effect for Pilot Reports (PIREPS), reports by en route pilots describing in-flight weather conditions as they encountered them. FAA, the National Weather Service, and Department of Defense personnel received and encoded PIREPS into the new format and fed them into a teletypewriter network for distribution to civil and military aviation facilities around the country. Replacing earlier informal reports given by the pilots in no particular order, the new format facilitated the reading and relay of PIREPS, and made them more adaptable for use with several automated weather communication systems FAA had under development.
19981015: A FAA Boeing 727 receiving signals from both U.S. and European satellite navigation networks performed successful flight tests at Iceland’s Keflavik Airport. The aircraft performed a series of category I precision approaches to the runway using onboard equipment that received signals from the FAA national satellite test bed, a forerunner to WAAS, and the United Kingdom’s Northern European Satellite Test Bed. (See October 20-22, 1997; December 9, 1998.)
20031015: The White House commission established to investigate the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks issued a subpoena to obtain needed documents from FAA. In May, the commission had requested all documents relating to FAA’s tracking of the hijacked airliners and communications with the North American Aerospace Defense Command. FAA had provided 40 boxes containing 150,000 pages of information in September, but during subsequent interviews, the commission had learned that some materials had not been included. FAA officials responded that their failure to turn over all documents had been caused in part by internal procedures used to search for material. (See July 22, 2004.)
20101015: FAA broke ground for a new air traffic control tower at Oakland International Airport. Two air traffic control towers served Oakland International Airport. A 158-foot-tall tower on the southern portion of the airfield was built in 1962 as part of a terminal expansion project. In 1972, construction of a large hangar blocked some views from the south tower, requiring the Port of Oakland to build a second tower to handle traffic on the north runways. Replacing both towers with a single one would improve air traffic operations and reduce operating costs.
20121015: The first air traffic control tower at Hernando County (FL) Airport began operations. The FAA contract tower operated from 7 am until 10 pm seven days a week. The 82-foot tower cost $2.2 million to construct.
20121015: Southwest Airlines announced it had hired former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt as its senior vice president of labor relations. (See December 5, 2011.)
20131015: Applied Research Associates Inc. (ARA) announced FAA had issued its Nighthawk IV micro-unmanned aircraft system a special airworthiness certificate, which would allow potential customers to apply for agency approval to operate the 2-lb. aircraft in the national airspace. Capable of being operated by one or two personnel, the Nighthawk IV could be hand-launched or launched from a tube. The vehicle flew autonomously while the operator directed the route using a touchpad display. Only four hours of training were required before an operator could conduct a flight, according to ARA. (See September 12, 2013; November 7, 2013.)
20131015: Air travel provider De Pere, Wisconsin-based MetJet informed the Department of Transportation it planned to cease operations on October 26. MetJet offered flights from Austin Strauble International Airport in Ashwaubenon, WI, to Orlando and Fort Meyers, FL. MetJet’ss contracted airline, Sun Country, did not cease operations.
20151015: Chicago O’Hare International Airport opened a new $516-million runway as part of its $9-billion modernization project. (See October 17, 2013.)
20201015: FAA issued the Streamlined Launch and Reentry Licensing Requirements Final Rule (PDF) for commercial space transportation launches and reentries. The rule consolidated four regulatory parts and applied a single set of licensing and safety regulations for all types of vehicle operations. The final rule’s application processes allowed
* A single operator’s license that can be used to support multiple launches or reentries from potentially multiple launch site locations.
* Early review when applicants submit portions of their license application incrementally.
* Applicants to negotiate mutually agreeable reduced time frames for submittals and application review periods.
* Applicants to apply for a safety element approval with a license application, instead of needing to submit a separate application.
* Additional flexibility on how to demonstrate high consequence event protection.
* Neighboring operations personnel to stay during launch or reentry in certain circumstances.
* Ground safety oversight to be scoped to better fit the safety risks and reduce duplicative requirements when operating at a federal site.
This rule became effective 90 days after issuance. Legacy licenses could be used for up to five years after the rule’s effective date. (See July 31, 2013; March 21, 2021.)
20211015: London-based jet engine maker Rolls-Royce carried out a flight test on a Boeing 747 test plane at Tucson International Airport with one of its engines burning 100% low-carbon, sustainable biofuel, and the three other engines running on standard jet fuel. The engine burning the bio-fuel had no engineering issues during the 54-minute flight. (See November 20, 2020; December 1, 2021.)