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Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19650510: The Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center provided air traffic control service for an emergency Air Force airlift to the Dominican Republic during U.S. intervention in civil conflict in that country. In 1,710 missions, the airlift carried 14,699 tons of cargo and 17,921 passengers.
19730510: The Civil Aeronautics Board published the first rule regulating smoking on aircraft for reasons of consumer comfort and protection. The Board required airlines to provide separate sections for smokers and nonsmokers. Subsequent modifications to the rule included a 1981 requirement that airlines guarantee a seat in the nonsmoking section to every nonsmoker who met the check-in deadline. (See March 19, 1970, and June 20, 1984.)
19820510: FAA began an experimental program of allowing airlines to buy, sell, and transfer airport landing “slots” among themselves.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290509: An Interdepartmental Committee on Airways was established to study and pass on applications for extension of civil airways in the United States. Totaling six members, the committee consisted of three representatives each from the Post Office and Commerce Departments.
19360509: The German rigid airship Hindenburg moored at Lakehurst, N.J., after a nonstop transatlantic passage of 61 hours 38 minutes from Fiedrichshafen, Germany.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19450508: President Truman proclaimed the end of the war in Europe.
19460508: The Bell Aircraft Corporation’s Model 47 became the first helicopter to receive a CAA airworthiness type certificate, authorizing mass production.
19670508: The prevailing preference for flying rather than sailing among transoceanic travelers was pointedly emphasized as the Cunard Steamship Company announced retirement of the world’s two largest passenger liners, RMS Queen Elizabeth and the RMS Queen Mary.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19370507: The first flight by a fully pressurized airplane, the Lockheed XC-35, occurred. The Army used the plane, a modified Electra, to test equipment and material for use in high altitude operations. A few aircraft prior to the XC-35 had been fitted with experimental pressure cabins, but none of the earlier models flew successfully.
19640507: A passenger shot the captain and first officer of a Pacific Air Lines Fokker F-27 en route from Reno, Nev., to San Francisco, Calif. The aircraft crashed near San Ramon, Calif., killing all 44 occupants. (See August 6, 1964.)
19750507: FAA and PATCO reached agreement on a two-year contract (signed and effective July 8). The contract’s 74 articles included a guarantee of controller inclusion in the Aviation Safety Reporting Program

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19350506: A Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) DC-2 crashed near Atlanta, Mo., killing five of the eight persons aboard. Senator Bronson M. Cutting (R-N.Mex.) was among the fatalities. A Bureau of Air Commerce report cited the accident’s causes as the U.S. Weather Bureau’s failure to predict hazardous weather and misjudgments by the pilot and TWA ground personnel. In June 1936, however, a committee chaired by Sen. Royal S. Copeland (D-N.Y.) issued a report alleging that the tragedy was caused by malfunctioning navigational aides and voicing other criticisms of the Bureau of Air Commerce. The controversy gave impetus to legislative efforts that eventuated in the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938. (See June 23, 1938.)
19370506: The German airship Hindenburg burst into flames while mooring at Lakehurst, N.J., the U.S. terminal for its regular transatlantic service, killing 35 of the 97 persons aboard. The tragedy signaled the end of serious efforts to use rigid airships in commercial air transportation.
19500506: To improve communications between CAA and the general aviation community, Administrator Rentzel established an Aviation Development Advisory Committee.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19300505: The Post Office Department, hoping to stimulate air passenger traffic, issued an order calling for the installation of at least two passenger seats in each mail plane operated by day.
19550505: An agreement between the United States and Canada provided for the construction and operation of a new distant early warning (DEW) radar defense line in northern Canada.
19610505: Navy aeronauts Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather set a balloon high altitude record of 113,740 feet while testing space suits developed for use by Project Mercury astronauts.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19550504: President Eisenhower, acting through the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, requested William Barclay Harding to serve as a consultant to study long-range needs for aviation facilities and aids. On December 31, 1955, Harding’s Aviation Facilities Study Group submitted its report to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget. Concluding that the need to improve air traffic management had already reached critical proportions, the group recommended that an individual of national reputation, responsible directly to the President, be appointed to provide full time leadership in developing a program for solving the complex technical and organizational problems facing the government and the aviation industry.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19550503: Preliminary plans were announced for sending CAA specialists to assist Pakistan in developing its airways system under an agreement between Pakistan and the U.S. Foreign Operations Administration.
19700503: Upgraded certification requirements for aviation maintenance technician schools (formerly called “aviation mechanic schools”) became effective. The changes, which included new curriculum requirements for both certification and operations, were designed to reflect recent technological advances in aviation.
19710503: FAA’s Management Training School at Cameron College, Lawton, Okla., admitted its first class.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19400502: President Roosevelt gave final approval for development of a version of the instrument landing system (ILS) favored by CAA. Deployment of the system was delayed, however, by continued disagreements with the military and by World War II defense priorites. ILS did not become available for civil airliners until after the war.
19520502: The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) inaugurated the first scheduled air service with turbojet airliners, de Havilland Comet I’s, operating between London and Johannesburg. (See January 10, 1954.)
19610502: The FAA Administrator and the CAB Chairman issued a joint policy statement favoring the use of a single air carrier airport serving adjacent communities when such an arrangement might cut costs and improve service.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280501: Pitcairn Aviation began operations along the Atlantic seaboard as a contract mail-hauler. The airline inaugurated passenger operations between New York and Washington on August 18, 1930, under the name Eastern Air Transport. The growing carrier acquired New York Airways in 1931 and Luddington Air Lines in 1933, and later took the name Eastern Air Lines in 1934. Eastern subsequently absorbed Colonial Airlines in 1956 and Mackey Air Lines in 1967.
19390501: The Civil Aeronautics Authority completed a $7 million airways modernization and improvement program begun July 1, 1937.