Category: TDiFH

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19380714: With a crew of four, Howard Hughes flew a Lockheed L-14 around the world from Floyd Bennett Field, N.Y., and back with stops at Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, and Minneapolis. This celebrated flight of 14,824 miles took 3 days 19 hours, about half the time achieved by Wiley Post over a similar course in 1934 (see entry for June 23-July 1, 1931).
20000714: Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and FAA Administrator Jane Garvey marked the completion of the effort to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system by dedicating the 20th and final installation of new DSR hardware and supporting computers. The last system in the $1.05 billion FAA program to replace older computers and displays was dedicated at the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center in Leesburg, Virginia. (See January 20, 1999.)
20000714: FAA announced an agreement among the airlines, airline pilot groups, and others in the aviation industry to continue land and hold short operations (LAHSO).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19610713: FAA issued new procedures for the emergency operation of the DC-8 hydraulic system in a telegram to the aircraft’s users. The action followed a United Air Lines accident fatal to 17 persons on July 11 and a non-fatal accident on July 12.
19670713: NASA awarded the first contract in its quiet-engine project, part of the Government-wide noise abatement program, to the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation. The objective of the quiet engine project, due to run into fiscal 1972 and cost $50 million, was to employ all known noise control techniques in a 20,000-pound-thrust demonstrator engine. When installed in a new sound absorbing nacelle, the “quiet engine” was expected to be 20 perceived noise decibels quieter than jet engines in use during the late 1960s.
19700713: FAA announced an expansion of the air traffic controller training facilities at the Aeronautical Center.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19400712: A Pan American Boeing 314 left San Francisco for Aukland, beginning service between the United States and New Zealand for air mail. Passenger service began September 13, 1940.
19540712: CAA and the Air Force announced the completion of plans for CAA to operate radar approach control centers (RAPCONs) at 18 military bases, to serve both civil and military traffic. The first joint RAPCON had been commissioned at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, on April 4, 1954.
19610712: Findings of a recently completed U.S. Civil Service Commission review of the functions and operations of FAA flight service stations were released.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19340711: The Federal Aviation Commission, appointed by President Roosevelt in accordance with section 20 of the Air Mail Act of 1934 (see June 12, 1934), held its first meeting. The members were: Clark Howell, editor in chief of the Atlanta Constitution and a member of the National Transportation Committee of 1932; Edward P. Warner, a leading aeronautical engineer and the former first Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics; Albert J. Berres, a labor relations expert; Jerome C. Hunsaker, a former naval officer with executive experience in civil aviation business enterprises; and Franklin K. Lane, a lawyer with both Army and Navy aviation experience.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19450710: The Civil Aeronautics Board adopted a rule requiring a flight engineer on certain international flights. (See July 8, 1940 and February 15, 1946.)
19460710: The Civil Aeronautics Administration announced plans to establish nine new foreign offices during the next year. The locations selected included Paris, London, Cairo, Shanghai, Sidney, and Mexico City. CAA stations already existed at Lima, Rio de Janeiro, and Balboa (C.Z.).
19510710: Negotiations aimed at ending the Korean conflict began. Fighting continued, however, and hostilities were not formally ended until the signing of an armistice in Panmunjom on July 27, 1953.
19560710: CAA announced the establishment in the Boston area of a Military Integration Branch of the Technical Development Center.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19530709: New York Airways became the first scheduled passenger helicopter air carrier to operate in the United States. (See October 1, 1947.)
19620709: Effective this date, a new FAA rule required supplemental (”nonsked”) airlines to conduct proving flights on new or materially altered aircraft before placing them in service. In effect, the new rule extended to the supplementals the provisions of a rule already applying to the scheduled airlines, requiring such aircraft to be flight tested a total of 100 hours, including 50 hours of en route operation and at least 10 hours at night. The new rule was one of several tightening-up measures deemed necessary when the supplementals’ safety record, which had been excellent, deteriorated in 1960 and 1961. (See November 8, 1961, and July 10, 1962.)
19820709: A Pan American 727 crashed shortly after takeoff from New Orleans International Airport, killing all 145 aboard and 8 persons on the ground.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19400708: TWA employed the first flight engineer in U.S. scheduled domestic passenger service, on the Boeing 307B Stratoliner. The flight engineer took over system support functions, including the operation of the pressurization system, from the pilots. (See November 1, 1937 and July 10, 1945.)
19470708: The prototype Boeing 377 Stratocruiser first flew. The 377, an outgrowth of the military B29 Superfortress and the C-97 military transport, received its CAA type-certificate on September 3, 1948, and first saw service with Pan American World Airways on April 1, 1949. The plane had a spiral staircase leading down to a first class lounge in the lower fuselage. It could carry approximately 100 passengers or could be converted into a sleeper plane with 28 full-sized Pullman berths.
19710708: FAA put into operation a jet-propelled boat to conduct search and rescue operations in the event of a crash landing in the Potomac River near Washington National Airport.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290707: Transcontinental Air Transport inaugurated 48-hour coast-to-coast passenger transportation service, with air travel by day and rail travel by night. Charles A. Lindbergh flew the first plane over the route. (See May 16, 1928, and October 25, 1930.)
19380707: President Roosevelt named the five members of the Civil Aeronautics Authority (see June 29, 1938). The Chairman was to be Edward J. Noble, a Connecticut industrialist who had long had an interest in aviation and was one of the first private owners of an autogyro. The other members were Grant Mason, Harllee Branch, Oswald Ryan, and Robert H. Hinckley. (See April 12, 1939.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19360706: Federal air traffic control began as the Bureau of Air Commerce took over operation of the three airway traffic control centers at Newark, Chicago, and Cleveland. Up to this time, these centers had been operated by private airline companies (see December 1, 1935). The centers were placed under Earl F. Ward, whose appointment as Supervisor, Airway Traffic Control, had been announced on March 6, 1936. Ward reported to the chief of the Airline Inspection Service within the Air Regulation Division. When the Bureau assumed control of the centers, it hired fifteen center employees to become the original Federal corps of airway controllers.
19390706: Eastern Air Lines began the world’s first scheduled air mail service by a rotary winged aircraft, using a Kellet autogyro to fly from the roof of the Philadelphia Post Office to the airport at Camden, N.J. This experimental service lasted about one year. (See October 1, 1947.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19770705: FAA announced award of a contract for an engineering model of a new generation of Airport Surface Detection Equipment, designated ASDE-3. ASDE surface radar had been in service at U.S. airports since September 1960 (see that date). FAA planned to use ASDE-3 as a replacement for the ASDE-2 systems in use at 13 airports, as well as to install ASDE-3 at additional locations. The new equipment would provide clearer outlines of runways and taxiways while at the same time suppressing radar returns from buildings and rainfall. In April 1977, FAA had ordered display enhancement units for the ASDE-2 as an interim measure.
FAA ordered the ASDE-3 engineering model a few months after a ground collision in the Canary Islands caused 583 deaths (see March 27, 1977).