Category: TDiFH

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19290114: The Commerce Department’s Aeronautics Branch received the Aero Club of America Trophy for 1928 for its outstanding development of airways and air navigation facilities. Robert J. Collier had established the award, first presented in 1912, to honor the previous year’s most outstanding contribution to U.S. aeronautics or astronautics. In 1922, the Aero Club of America was incorporated as the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), which assumed administration of the award and renamed it the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 1944.
19550114: The VORTAC Committee of the Air Navigation Development Board (ANDB) reported its inability to reach a unanimous decision to resolve the TACAN/VOR-DME controversy (see January 1954). Despite the split report of its committee, the ANDB favored development of TACAN.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19610113: An FAA directive gave the Bureau of Research and Development full responsibility for the improvement and modification of air navigation aids, communications, and related equipment used in the Federal airways system. While continuing to procure, install, and maintain such facilities, the Bureau of Facilities and Materiel, which had previously shared or performed certain R&D functions, would henceforth provide only required “immediate” engineering support.
19700113: Blanche Stuart Scott, often considered the first American woman to pilot an airplane, died. In September 1910, Scott made her first solo flight in a Curtiss Pusher at Hammondsport, N.Y.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19350112: Amelia Earhart took off in a Lockheed Vega from Honolulu and landed in Oakland, Calif., 18 hours 15 minutes later–making the first solo flight from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland.
19370112: Franklin Roosevelt submitted to Congress the Report of the President’s Committee on Administrative Management, popularly known as the Brownlow Report, named after chairman Louis Brownlow, a public administration expert. The committee had examined the proliferation of Federal boards, commissions, and agencies that operated independently of the President’s executive powers, and constituted a “fourth branch of Government.” The committee had no quarrel with the Congress’s intent in creating these agencies–they were needed to perform quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19430111: Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly while holding office when he took off from Miami, Fla., aboard Pan American’s Dixie Clipper. On January 14, Roosevelt arrived in French Morocco to attend the Casablanca Conference. (See July 2, 1932.)
19450111: Administrator Theodore P. Wright of the Civil Aeronautics Administration announced the formation of an Advisory Committee on Non-Scheduled Flying, composed of representatives from the aviation industry and the private flyer sector, to assist CAA in planning for increased postwar private flying.
19490111: The Civil Aeronautics Board granted a certificate of convenience and necessity as a local service carrier to All American Airways, which had been founded in 1937 as All American Aviation.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19540110: A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) de Havilland Comet I jetliner fell into the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of all 35 on board. BOAC temporarily suspended Comet operations after the accident, but resumed them on March 23. On April 8, a second Comet I crashed into the Mediterranean, killing all 21 occupants. Comet services were discontinued again when the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation withdrew the jet transport’s airworthiness certificate. On February 11, 1955, a Court of Inquiry into the two accidents announced that testing had revealed that the aircraft’s fuselage shell was prematurely vulnerable to metal fatigue. De Havilland engineers subsequently corrected the deficiencies, but the setback helped American manufacturers to overtake the British in the commercial jetliner race. (See May 2, 1952, and December 20, 1957.)
19660110: Reliance on radar for controlling air traffic advanced when a rule effective this date permitted pilots flying Instrument Flight Rules in a radar environment to omit routine position reports.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19430109: The Lockheed C-69 first flew. After the war, this four-engine, military transport was converted into a successful commercial airliner, the L-049 Constellation. In December 1945, CAA type-certificated the Constellation, which entered commercial passenger service on January 14, 1946, with Pan American. Model L-649, the first version manufactured entirely for civil use, carried 60 passengers and had a range of over 3,000 miles with 8 tons of payload. On November 26, 1968, a Western Air Lines “Connie” completed the type’s last scheduled airline flight in North America.
19470109: Regulations governing the administration of the Federal Airport Act received final approval, and two days later CAA announced the 1947 construction program, listing 800 airports for either construction or improvement.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19600108: The New York Times reported that Pan American World Airways had put into operation near Shannon, Ireland, the first unit in a planned worldwide radio transmission system using the “forward scatter” technique. This was the first such very-high-frequency ground station to be put into operation by an airline.
19620108: FAA established an Agency Regulatory Council to facilitate rulemaking and to insure the implementation of the Administrator’s rulemaking policies. The agency also established the position of Executive Director to provide full-time management for the Council.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19520107: CAA inaugurated radar departure control procedures at the Washington air route traffic control center. Use of radar for approach began July 1, 1952.
19590107: The Federal Aviation Agency began an extensive air traffic survey covering all segments of U.S. aviation–air carrier, military, and general aviation. Goals of the survey were to develop estimates of air activity through 1980 and to formulate a scientific method of forecasting air activity. FAA’s sampling of a period having the lowest level of air activity was followed in July and August by a second survey providing data on the summer peak.
19690107: FAA imposed additional airworthiness standards for small airplanes used in air taxi operations under Special Federal Aviation Regulation 23, effective this date. The standards applied to piston-powered and turboprop airplanes weighing 12,500 pounds or less and capable of carrying more than 10 occupants, including the flightcrew. (See September 7, 1964, and December 1, 1978.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19420106: Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper landed at New York, the first commercial airplane to circle the globe, exclusive of the continental United States. The aircraft had left San Francisco on December 2, 1941, and was operating in the South Pacific when the Pearl Harbor attack forced it to return to home territory by flying west.
19600106: A National Airlines DC-6B crashed near Bolivia, N.C., killing 34 passengers and crew. The Civil Aeronautics Board accident investigation revealed that the plane had disintegrated in flight as a result of a dynamite explosion. Bomb fragments were found imbedded in the body of passenger Julian Frank, who, in the preceding year, had taken out more than a million dollars in life insurance.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19520105: Using Douglas DC-6As, Pan American World Airways inaugurated the first all-cargo air service across the North Atlantic.
19720105: Betty C. Dillon, a career civil servant, became the first woman to be sworn in as Minister of the U.S. Government to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
19990105: FAA announced it would revise the implementation schedule for the Wide Area Augmentation System to allow more time to complete development of a critical software safety package that would monitor, correct, and verify the performance of the system.