Category: TDiFH

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19340415: Airport development with Federal aid was transferred to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration for completion of projects started under the Civil Works Administration. (See November 24, 1933.)
19480415: CAA conducted flight demonstrations at Washington National Airport with four types of aircraft equipped with crosswind landing gear developed by the agency through contracts with industry. CAA hoped that availability of the castered gear would encourage wider use of single-strip airports, substantially reducing the large landing areas required for multidirectional runways. On October 15, 1949, CAA’s official journal reported that, as a result of further tests, the agency had approved a new component for DC-3s equipped with a cross-wind undercarriage.

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19400414: The first Air Corps detachment assigned to Alaska arrived at Fairbanks.
19610414: The first FAA-sponsored International Aviation Research and Development Symposium, convened at Atlantic City, covered subjects relating to advances in electronics and their application to air navigation and air traffic control systems. Attendees included officials of some 20 foreign governments and representatives of the electronics and aviation communities.
19750414: FAA eliminated the proposed requirement for altitude reporting transponders (Mode C) on all aircraft operating in Group II Terminal Control Areas (TCAs) 45 days before it was to go into effect (see June 8, 1973 and January 29, 1987).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19280413: Hermann Koehl, a German, and James Fitzmaurice, an Irishman, accompanied by one passenger, made the first nonstop east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic by airplane, flying from Ireland to a crash landing on Greenly Island, Labrador, in the Junkers W-33L Bremen.
19900413: A Federal court declared FAA’s rules of practice in assessing civil penalties not exceeding $50,000 to be invalid because the agency had failed to give public notice of the proposed rules or to allow a period of public comment (see December 30, 1987). FAA accordingly suspended the program, issued a rulemaking proposal, and followed this with a final rule effective August 2, 1990.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19390412: President Roosevelt named Robert H. Hinckley of Utah, to be Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority. He succeeded Edward J. Noble (see July 7, 1938), who resigned to become Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce. Hinckley was serving as an original member of the Authority at the time of his appointment to the chairmanship. Previously, he had been Assistant Administrator of the Works Progress Administration and had been in charge of WPA activities in the West. Hinckley was Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority at the time of the reorganization of June 30, 1940 (see that date). He became Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Air on July 8, 1940, and served in that post until July 1, 1942.
19450412: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at Warm Springs, Ga. Vice President Harry S Truman took the oath as President.
19600412: FAA announced the start of a live test of the SAGE air defense system as a means of improving high-altitude air traffic control services.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19570411: President Eisenhower transmitted to Congress an interim report by Edward P. Curtis, Special Assistant for Aviation Facilities Planning (see May 4, 1955). The report proposed the establishment of an Airways Modernization Board as a temporary organization to unite scattered responsibilities for system development and selection. Eisenhower stated that his Administration would submit legislation for the establishment of such a board and urged its early enactment.

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19360410: The President signed legislation that extended the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act to airline employees. The act guaranteed the right of collective bargaining and provided mechanisms, such as mediation and arbitration, for settling labor-management issues. It also provided for investigation of representation disputes and for certification of employee organizations as representatives of crafts or classes of carrier employees.
19530410: The U.S. Air Force decided to proceed with the production of SAGE (Semiautomatic Ground Environment), an electronic defense system developed by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. (See July 10, 1956.)
19700410: Some 3,000 air traffic controllers, all members of PATCO, engaged in a “sick-out” strike.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19470409: CAA granted its first approval of the Air Forces’ Ground Control Approach (GCA) radar device for commercial planes, authorizing its use by Pan American Airways at Gander, Newfoundland. (See April 3, 1947, and July 11, 1947.)
19670409: The Boeing 737 made its first flight. On December 15, 1967, FAA type-certificated the airliner, a short-range jet transport with swept wings, wing-mounted twin engines, and a maximum capacity of 107 passengers, for operation with a two-man cockpit crew. The plane entered scheduled airline service on February 10, 1968.
19700409: Boeing 727-200 “stretch jets” were allowed to operate at Washington National Airport, initially on a temporary basis.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19470408: American Overseas Airlines obtained rights for commercial service to Finland, the first U.S. route to the Soviet sphere in Europe.
19590408: CAB ruled that foreign airlines could not carry commercial traffic moving only between U.S. cities. Consistent with U.S. international commitments, the ruling was viewed as strengthening the stand of U.S. airlines against further invasion of domestic markets by foreign carriers.
19650408: FAA demonstrated, with the manufacturer’s assistance, a McDonnell Aircraft Corporation 188 STOL (short takeoff and landing) aircraft at Dulles International Airport as part of the agency’s long-range study of interurban air transportation (see April 1966).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19410407: The War Department-sponsored Interdepartmental Air Traffic Control Board began operations on this date. The IATCB included representatives of the Army, Navy, CAA, and CAB, and became an important coordinating agency for the location of military air installations. Forerunner to the later Air Coordinating Committee (see March 27, 1945), IATCB helped evolve many of the procedures for the control and regulation of air traffic used during the war. The Board was abolished on May 31, 1946.
19610407: FAA rescinded previous orders that had authorized the establishment of field area offices in accordance with recommendations of Project Straight-Line. (See September 2,

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19270406: William P. MacCracken, Jr., Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, received Pilot License No. 1, a private pilot license, from the Aeronautics Branch. MacCracken thus became the first person to obtain a pilot license from a civilian agency of the U.S. Government. (During World War I, the Joint Army and Navy Board on Aeronautic Cognizance had issued flying licenses to civilian individuals and companies. The Board acted under the authority of a Presidential proclamation, issued on February 28, 1918, which described the program as a wartime security measure; however, the proclamation remained in effect until July 31, 1919, more than eight months after the Armistice.) Before