Category: TDiFH

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19680928: Under provisions of a rule effective this date, FAA required an approved altitude alerting system to be installed on all U.S. civil turbojet aircraft by February 29, 1972. Aided by this device, a pilot climbing or descending to a preselected altitude would be alerted, by signals to both eye and ear, in sufficient time to establish level flight at the desired altitude. The device would also provide a warning if the pilot strayed from an assigned altitude. FAA considered this necessary because of the dangers posed by inadvertent aircraft deviations from assigned or predetermined flight lanes in an environment increasingly populated by turbojets possessing capability for rapid climb and descent.
19840928: A DOT Inspector General report on drug and alcohol abuse among FAA employees concluded that the problem was more widespread than management realized and recommended stronger action on the issue.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19380927: The Civil Aeronautics Authority announced that President Roosevelt had approved its recommendation for the immediate construction of a close-in airport to serve the District of Columbia–the Washington National Airport. Expected to serve as a model for the rest of the nation, the new airport would be located at Gravelly Point on the Potomac River. The site of approximately 750 acres would include 500 acres of “made” land from dry fill and dredging. The project was to begin immediately and was scheduled for completion by the end of 1940. (See June 16, 1941.)
19560927: CAA announced the formation of a team of aviation specialists to provide technical assistance and guidance to Afghanistan in developing a national airways system.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19640926: The Bureau of Budget released the first significant amount of hardware-procurement funds for modernizing the National Airspace System (NAS). These funds were specifically designated for installing the first complete NAS En Route Stage A configuration (FAA’s semiautomated system for en route air traffic control) at the ARTCC at Jacksonville, Fla. (See February 1, 1967.) Modernization of both the en route and terminal air traffic control subsystems of NAS had been recommended in 1961 by the Project Beacon task force (see September 11, 1961). The modernization was a long-range program that would require a decade or longer to fully implement.
19650926: A rule effective this date required biennial requalification of all flight instructors. It also required instructors to assume additional responsibilities for the supervision of student-pilot solo flight operations.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19500925: Overruling the Civil Aeronautics Board, President Truman permitted the merger of American Overseas Airlines into Pan American World Airways. (See October 24, 1945.)
19610925: FAA, NASA, and the Defense Department agreed on a plan for the research and study phase of the commercial supersonic transport (SST) program. Assigning FAA responsibility for overall program leadership and management direction, the plan provided for a Supersonic Transport Steering Group–headed by the FAA Administrator and including the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Materiel and NASA’s Director of Advanced Research Programs–to formulate broad policy and give overall guidance for the Federal role in the program. The Steering Group would be supported on the working level by the SST task group, which had been in operation for some time.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290924: At Mitchel Field, N.Y., Army Lt. James H. Doolittle became the first pilot to use only instrument guidance to take off, fly a set course, and land. Doolittle received directional guidance from a radio range course aligned with the airport runway, while radio marker beacons indicated his distance from the runway. He relied on a sensitive altimeter to determine his altitude, and controlled the attitude of his aircraft with guidance from a directional gyro and an artificial horizon. Doolittle made the flight as part of research he conducted for the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, with cooperation from the Bureau of Standards, the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce, and other organizations. He flew in a hooded cockpit, but was accompanied by a check pilot who could have intervened in an emergency. On May 9, 1932, Capt. A. F. Hegenberger flew without a check pilot to make the first blind solo flight on instruments only, at Dayton, Ohio.
19830924: Continental Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 and suspended flights.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19440923: Theodore P. Wright was sworn in as Administrator of Civil Aeronautics. Nominated on August 22, Wright succeeded Charles I. Stanton (see July 20, 1942), who submitted his resignation on August 18 and, on its acceptance, reverted to his former position of Deputy Administrator.
Wright was educated at Lombard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was commissioned in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps in 1918, and was superintendent of naval aircraft construction for the New York district during 1921, his last year of naval service.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19670922: North American Rockwell Corporation came into being, result of a merger between North American Aviation and Rockwell-Standard Corporation.
19830922: FAA announced the award of two competitive contracts for design of a new mainframe computers to replace the IBM 9020 computers at Air Route Traffic Control Towers as part of the agency’s Advanced Automation Program. (See January 28, 1982 and July 26, 1985.)
19880922: FAA issued a rule requiring that all turbine-powered airliners seating 30 passengers or more carry equipment to warn pilots when they encounter low-altitude wind shear and provide them with information needed to escape safely (see October 9, 1986).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19590921: FAA announced that its representatives and those of DOD and the Air Force had signed an agreement to establish nine FAA air route traffic control centers at Air Force SAGE supercombat centers. The supercombat centers were part of the SAGE (semiautomatic ground environment) system for radar surveillance and identification of air traffic for air defense. (See July 10, 1956, and April 12, 1960.)
19610921: Senator A. S. Mike Monroney (D.-Okla.) introduced legislation proposed by FAA Administrator Halaby for creation of a Federal Aviation Service (FAS) to assure the continuity of essential airways services during any national emergency. Representative Oren Harris (D.-Ark.) introduced a similar bill in the House.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19450920: The first turboprop-powered aircraft flight was completed in Britain by a Gloster Meteor experimentally equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent engines.
19590920: FAA commissioned the San Antonio air traffic control center’s new building, the first in a program to construct 32 new center facilities. Located in most cases away from airports to permit more space and to withstand nuclear attack on critical target areas, the buildings had an expandable design to facilitate installation and use of the latest equipment. By the end of 1960, 15 of the centers were under construction or completed.
19610920: The Federal Airport Act was amended to extend the Federal-aid airport program through fiscal year 1964. The new law authorized appropriations of $75 million each for fiscal years 1962- 64. See Appendix VII for subsequent appropriations under this Act until its repeal in 1970. (See June 20, 1959, and May 21, 1970.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280919: The Packard Motor Car Company flight tested the first diesel engine to power heavier-than-air craft. Diesel aircraft engines seemed promising but proved too heavy, and interest in their development waned during the 1930s.
19330919: President Roosevelt appointed Eugene L. Vidal head of the Aeronautics Branch with the title of Director of Aeronautics (see June 10, 1933). Vidal was educated at the University of South Dakota and at West Point. Graduating from the latter institution in 1918, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers for two years before transferring to the Air Service and becoming a pilot.