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Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260716: The Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company inaugurated the first daily passenger air service between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in connection with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Declaration of Independence. Both passengers and mail were carried on a schedule of three trips in each direction daily, using three-engine Fokker monoplanes seating 10 passengers. The flying time was approximately 1 hour 30 minutes each way, and the passenger fare was $15 one way and $25 roundtrip. The service lasted for five months.
19450716: The United States Government exploded the first atomic device at Alamogordo, N. Mex.
19470716: CAA announced a program under which Latin American aviation leaders would come to the United States to study both the governmental and private phases of the nation’s aviation industry.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19340715: The Southwest Division of Varney Speed Lines began operations, flying a mail route between Pueblo, Col., and El Paso, Tex. The organization later evolved into Continental Air Lines, a name that it adopted on July 1, 1937.
19460715: CAA Administrator T. P. Wright invited the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the Air Transport Association, and the Aircraft Industries Association to participate in a joint attack on the problem of aircraft engine noise, which “threatens to undermine aviation progress.”

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.