Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290129: The Airways Division of the Department of Commerce turned on Beacon #25 at Miriam, Nevada, on the San Francisco-Salt Lake City Airway, completing the lighting of the transcontinental airway by closing the final twenty mile unlighted gap. (See July 1, 1927.)
19460129: CAA Administrator T. P. Wright received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for 1945 for notable achievement in the advancement of aeronautics.
19590129: The Civil Aeronautics Board issued the first certificates to supplemental air carriers. The certificated supplemental operators were authorized to offer unlimited domestic charter service, as well as up to ten round trips per month between any pair of U.S. points for individually ticketed passengers or individually waybilled cargo. The Board awarded the certificates of public convenience and necessity on a two- or five-year basis to 23 applicants, most of whom were already offering substantially the same types of services under an interim exemption. (See November 15, 1955, and July 10, 1962.)
19700129: The Air Traffic Controller Career Committee (popularly known as the Corson Committee) submitted its report to Secretary of Transportation John Volpe. The report’s recommendations included
*Reduce the overtime work required of controllers in high-density areas.
*Reduce the consecutive hours spent by controllers in operational positions to two, and the total hours per day on such positions to six.
*Detail qualified journeyman controllers to high-density facilities with critical manpower shortages.
*Develop a more mobile controller work force so that the needs of the system, rather than the preferences of controllers, determine assignments.
*Develop incentives to attract the most talented controllers to the most difficult positions.
*Pay special rates for employment in facilities located in high-cost-of-living areas. *Accelerate and improve training of developmental controllers.
*Seek legislation providing for the early retirement of controllers who attain a certain age and cannot be retained or reassigned to less arduous duty–e.g., retirement at age 50 after 20 years of ATC service with 50 percent of high-three average salary.
*Designate a single official immediately responsible to the FAA Administrator to handle all relationships with employee organizations at the national level.
A number of the committee’s recommendations, including detailing journeyman controllers to facilities with critical manpower shortages, and providing developmental controllers with “update” training, received immediate attention. In addition, FAA appointed a Director of Labor Relations on March 23, 1970. The agency established nine groups to consider the remaining recommendations and develop programs for their implementation. (See August 8, 1969, March 25-April 14, 1970, November 6, 1970, and May 16, 1972.)
19710129: The Department of Labor stripped PATCO of its status as a labor organization because it had called a strike against the Federal government. PATCO was required to post a notice declaring that it would not engage in illegal job actions before it could be considered eligible for recognition as a labor organization. PATCO took this and other steps to comply with the Labor Department’s decision. On June 4, the Department decided that PATCO was eligible to seek recognition as a labor organization under Executive Order 11491. Three days later, PATCO filed a new petition with Labor for exclusive recognition as the national representative for all air traffic controllers. (See September 10, 1970, and February 7, 1972.)
19710129: The Nixon administration proposed the sale of Washington National and Dulles International Airports in the Budget of the United States Government for fiscal year 1972. The Government asked $105 million for the two airports and made the sale subject to the approval of the Congress. (See October 30, 1986.)
19870129: FAA issued a rule establishing requirements pertaining to the use, installation, inspection, and testing of transponders in U.S.-registered civil aircraft. The rule continued the requirement that aircraft be equipped with a transponder for operation in Terminal Control Areas (TCAs) and in the airspace of the 48 contiguous states above 12,500 feet above ground level (see November 1, 1985). The requirement for automatic pressure altitude reporting (Mode C) equipment, currently mandatory in all of the above airspace except Group II TCAs, was extended to include Group II TCAs, effective December 1, 1987 (see June 21, 1988). The rule also contained provisions intended to provide for transition from Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS) transponders to Mode S transponders (see October 5, 1984). All transponders newly installed in U.S.-registered aircraft were required to be Mode S transponders after January 1, 1992, a deadline that was subsequently extended to July 1, 1992. (See July 30, 1992.)
19970129: FAA selected Raytheon to build the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS) and to install and maintain it at 34 sites covering 45 airports. ITWS would combine sensor and radar data from FAA and National Weather Service and present predictions on potentially hazardous weather to air traffic control personnel via easily-understood graphics and text.
19970129: FAA announced steps to provide the following aviation safety data to the public: beginning February 1, press releases on all new enforcement actions that sought civil penalties of $50,000 or greater; effective, February 28, an Internet page providing safety information, including some data previously available only through Freedom of Information Act requests, to consumers; and by March 31, addition of a public education portion to the Internet page to help travelers better understand the aviation safety record and safety systems.
19970129: A federal judge in Colorado selected the auditorium at FAA’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center to host the families of victims of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing who wanted to watch a close-circuit broadcast of the criminal trials.
19990129: FAA announced findings that, with some anticipated improvements, an augmented global positioning system (GPS) could serve safely and reliably as the only navigation system installed in aircraft and the only navigation system provided by the FAA. The findings were taken from an independent assessment of GPS capabilities conducted by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for the FAA, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the Air Transport Association. Features of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), both under development, were expected to provide the improved accuracy, integrity, and availability of the GPS signal referred to in the findings. (See June 3, 1998; January 5, 1999; April 2, 1999; April 6-9, 1999.)
20130129: Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced he would resign his post when the U.S. Senate confirmed his successor. (See April 29, 2013.)
20140129: FAA announced in a Federal Register notice it had combined two divisions – the aircraft engineering division with the production and airworthiness division – to create the design, manufacturing, and airworthiness division within its office of aviation safety. The new group, which assumed the old engineering division’s AIR-100 designation, had five branches: certification and procedures, technical and administrative support, systems and equipment standards, operational oversight and policy, and systems performance and development.