Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19630312: FAA published the first issue of Intercom, a weekly newsletter to keep employees at headquarters abreast of agency business. The issue announced that Intercom’s for field personnel would be developed at the regional level by adding regional news to that reported in the headquarters version. In May of the same year, FAA also distributed the first issue of Horizons, a longer publication for employees. Horizons appeared monthly until biweekly publication began during 1967. In January 1971, it was superseded by the monthly FAA World. Publication of World was suspended after May 1986, but resumed in December of that year and continued through April 1994.
19900312: Barry L. Harris became FAA’s Deputy Administrator, succeeding Barbara McConnell Barrett (see April 1, 1988). President Bush had announced the nomination on November 6, 1989. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Harris attended Harvard and Denison Universities and served as an officer in the U.S. Army. His career included positions as assistant city manager for Gloucester, Mass., director of community programs for the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and work as a writer and producer for the news media. Prior to joining FAA, he was president and chief executive of Alliance Corp., in Portland, Maine, and Community Services, Inc., in Gloucester. Harris had been cochairman of the Bush campaign’s state finance committee in Maine, and had served on the campaign’s national finance committee. He was an experienced pilot, qualified to fly helicopters as well as piston- and jet-powered fixed wing aircraft.
Harris served as Acting Administrator during the period between the tenures of Administrators Busey and Richards (see December 4, 1991, and June 27, 1992). He remained as Deputy for the rest of the Bush Administration, resigning effective January 20, 1993.
19960312: FAA issued a comprehensive revision of pilot medical standards and medical certification procedures. Among the many changes was a modification of the previous two-year validity period for the third-class airman medical certificates required for student, receational, and private pilots. The validity period would still be two years for pilots of age 40 and older, but would now be three years for younger pilots.
20130312: FAA approved the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company’s certification plan for the redesigned 787 battery system. The first step in the process to evaluate the 787’s return to flight, the certification plan required Boeing to conduct extensive testing and analysis to demonstrate compliance with the applicable safety regulations and special conditions. The plan established specific pass/fail criteria, defined the parameters that should be measured, prescribed the test methodology, and specified the test setup and design. FAA also approved limited test flights for two aircraft to validate the aircraft instrumentation for the battery and battery enclosure testing in addition to product improvements for other systems. (See January 16, 2013; April 19, 2013.)
20140312: NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman announced she would be leaving the agency on April 24 to become president and CEO of the National Safety Council.