Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 22nd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19810622: Department of Transportation and PATCO representatives reached agreement on a tentative new contract after a marathon bargaining session, thus averting a threatened nationwide strike by PATCO-affiliated controllers that had been scheduled to begin at 7 a.m., Monday, June 22.
20070622: Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, and Minister Praful Patel from the Ministry of Civil Aviation in India signed a memorandum of agreement that established the U.S.-India Aviation Cooperation Program, a U.S. government and industry initiative to promote aviation relations and cooperation with Indian counterparts. (See April 6, 2004.)
20120622: A fire at FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center forced the evacuation of 1,600 people working at the complex.

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 21st

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19680621: The U.S. Department of Labor ruled that FAA’s age-60 rule on airline pilot retirement represented a “bona fide occupational qualification” (BFOQ) under the provisions of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. On April 20, 1977, however, a U.S. appeals court held in the case of Houghton v. McDonnell Douglas that age did not necessarily constitute a BFOQ for test pilots. (See March 15, 1960, and January 24, 1974.)
19780621: The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) agreed to obey a Federal-court injunction and end a “work to rule” slowdown by its members that had intermittently snarled air traffic during the spring, particularly during the period May 25-26 and June 6-7 (see May 25, 1978).

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 20th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280620: Braniff Air Lines began operations. Organized by brothers Thomas and Paul Braniff, the airline carried passengers between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The brothers soon sold their airline, but later organized Braniff Airways, which began operations on November 13, 1930, in the same region. After expanding and acquiring Latin American routes, the company changed its name to Braniff International Airways on June 4, 1948.
19300620: Aeronautics Branch certificated its first glider, the Detroit Gull, Model G-1.
19350620: President Roosevelt ordered the creation of the Interdepartmental Committee on Civil International Aviation to gather information and make recommendations pertaining to civil international aviation.

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 19th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19340619: An amendment to the Air Commerce Act of 1926 gave the Aeronautics Branch stronger authority to investigate civil aircraft accidents. The amendment empowered the Secretary of Commerce or his representative to subpoena witnesses to testify or produce documentary evidence at public hearings into the causes of such accidents. If the accident involved a fatality or serious injury, the Secretary was required to issue a statement of the probable cause. In other cases, issuance of such a statement was left to the Secretary’s discretion. The amendment also gave the Secretary additional safety-rulemaking powers. (See October 1, 1934.)
19350619: Gathering at the invitation of the Department of Commerce, a group of governmental and industry representatives formed the Radio Technical Committee for Aeronautics (RTCA).

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 18th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280618: Wilmer Stultz piloted a pontoon-equipped Fokker from Newfoundland to Wales on the first nonstop transatlantic flight by a seaplane. He was accompanied by a mechanic and by Amelia Earhart, the first woman transatlantic air passenger.
19710618: FAA announced a joint program with the military services designed to minimize the number of military aircraft flying under visual flight rules (VFR). The purpose of the program was to enhance the efficiency of the common civil-military airspace system and reduce the midair-collision hazard by bringing military flights under the direct control of FAA’s air traffic control facilities.

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 17th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290617: Delta Air Service made its first passenger flight, with a six-passenger Travel Air, from Dallas, Tex., to Monroe, La. As it broadened its passenger operations, the company (which originated as an aerial crop dusting operation, the Huff Daland Dusters) changed its name to Delta Air Corporation and then, in 1945, to Delta Air Lines. On May 1, 1953, Chicago and Southern Airlines merged into Delta.
19470617: Pan American Airways inaugurated round-the-world scheduled passenger service, exclusive of the continental United States, as a Lockheed Constellation took off from New York and flew eastward on a route that led to San Francisco. The gap in the circle between San Francisco and New York could not be closed because of a provision in Pan Am’s certificate excluding domestic service. (See January 14, 1958.)
19520617: The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a recommendation that, pending development of a more suitable form of speech, English should be used as a universal language in aeronautical radiotelephony and should be available for communications involving international air services.

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 16th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19370616: Commercial passenger service was inaugurated reciprocally between New York and Bermuda by Pan American Airways, using the Sikorsky S.42B flying boat Bermuda Clipper, and by Imperial Airways, using the Short S.23 flying boat Cavalier. This was the first scheduled airplane service over a segment of the North Atlantic.
19410616: CAA officially opened Washington National Airport for full-time operations. By the end of the year, almost 300,000 passengers had enplaned or deplaned at the airport, and scheduled air carrier operations reached a high of 192 daily in the month of September. Spectator interest was very high, and by the first of December over 2,225,000 persons had visited the airport.
19480616: The International Aviation Facilities Act became law. It authorized the CAA Administrator to improve air navigation facilities abroad and to train foreign nationals to operate such facilities whenever it benefited U.S. air carriers.

Categories
TDiFH Uncategorized

This Day in FAA History: June 15th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19470615: President Harry S Truman appointed a Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety, headed by CAB Chairman James M. Landis. The action followed a series of three DC-4 airline accidents that claimed the unpredecented total of 145 lives between May 29 and June 13, 1947. On August 15, Landis suggested that the Civil Aeronautics Board immediately hold hearings on airline crew complement to determine whether a flight engineer was required on all four-engine air transports in scheduled domestic passenger service. Between October 6-8, CAB held such hearings, and as a result, in April, 1948, adopted the so-called 80,000- pound rule. Effective December 2, 1948, (subsequently extended to March 31, 1949), all airplanes certificated for a maximum takeoff weight of more than 80,000 pounds were required to carry an airman holding a flight engineer’s certificate. Airmen with a pilot’s or a mechanic’s background could qualify for the certificate.

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 14th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19510614: A new Title XIII of the Civil Aeronautics Act authorized the Secretary of Commerce to provide war risk insurance to U.S. air carriers when such insurance could not be obtained commercially on reasonable terms and conditions. Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the war risk insurance program remained with the Secretary of Commerce rather than becoming a function of the new Federal Aviation Agency (FAA). In 1967, the program was transferred from Commerce to the new Secretary of Transportation, who delegated the function to FAA. Under the program, FAA maintained a premium standby insurance plan that would make aviation war risk insurance available at the outbreak of war to civil aircraft engaged in operations deemed in the national interest.

Categories
TDiFH

This Day in FAA History: June 13th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19680613: The Secretary of Transportation delegated responsibility for administering the aircraft loan guarantee program to the FAA Administrator. The Department of Transportation Act of 1966 had transferred final loan guarantee responsibility from the Secretary of Commerce to the Secretary of Transportation. Authority to guarantee loans under the act had lapsed in 1967, but was renewed in 1973 with changes that included an increase of the maximum limit per carrier to $30 million. (See October 15, 1962, and September 7, 1977.)
19790613: The following changes in the FAA Washington Headquarters organization became effective on this date:
*A new Office of Associate Administrator for Airports was established.
*The Office of Airport Programs and the position of Assistant Administrator for Airports Programs were abolished.
*The Office of Airport Standards and the Office of Airport Planning and Programming were established and placed under the executive direction of the Associate Administrator for Airports.
*Metropolitan Washington Airports were placed under the executive direction of the Associate Administrator for Airports.
19900613: FAA dedicated its first child care center to be built “from the ground up” in a ceremony at the Aeronautical Center.