Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280328: Assistant Secretary of Commerce MacCracken called a special conference of representatives of the Army Air Corps, Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, Weather Bureau, Bureau of Standards, and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to study the causes and prevention of ice formation on aircraft, and to discuss the possible development of an instrument to indicate when ice forms on an aircraft in flight.
19330328: The Aeronautics Branch gave permission to aircraft engine manufacturers to conduct endurance tests on their own equipment. Before this date, manufacturers seeking a type certificate for new engines had to ship them to the Bureau of Standards, in Washington, D.C., for endurance testing.
19590328: At FAA’s Aeronautical Center, Administrator Elwood R. Quesada held a meeting on rulemaking and enforcement attended by nearly 200 regional administrators, regional attorneys, and key Flight Standards personnel. Quesada announced plans for a concentrated aviation safety drive and full use of the agency’s rulemaking powers. The Administrator stated his “4-F” philosophy that FAA enforcement activities must be “firm, fair, fast, and factual.”
19690328: The first charter flight from the United States to the Soviet Union departed New York via an Overseas National Airways aircraft. On June 6, 1970, Alaska Airlines inaugurated the first of a series of charter flights from Anchorage to Khabarovsk, U.S.S.R.
19780328: In an extreme example of opposition to new airports, about 6,000 demonstrators rioted at the new Tokyo Airport near Narita, Japan, on the eve of its scheduled opening, some smashing equipment inside the control tower. Protesting farmers and students had already delayed the airport opening for five years, largely by erecting tall towers along the flight paths. The airport eventually opened on May 20.
19790328: Effective this date, FAA required the removal of lithium sulfur dioxide batteries from U.S. civil aircraft. The batteries were used primarily to power emergency locator transmitters, known as ELTs (see December 29, 1970). The agency acted because of incidents in which the batteries exploded, burned, or leaked gas that formed corrosive acid. The order affected approximately 60,000 aircraft, most of them privately owned. In September, FAA issued new standards for the batteries, including requirements that they be heremetically sealed and be replaced every two years. The agency ordered users of lithium batteries to reinstall their ELTs by March 28, 1980, but later extended the deadline to October 15, 1980, because of a shortage of the improved batteries.
19830328: The U.S. launched a weather satellite carrying Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) as part of its equipment, making it the first American satellite capable of receiving Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) signals. SARSAT was developed as a joint project of the U.S., Canada, and France. In parallel with this effort, the U.S.S.R. developed a compatible capability, called COSPAS, incorporated in satellites that they launched in June 1982 and the spring of 1983. The U.S. placed a second satellite with with SARSAT capability in orbit in December 1984, providing an optimum system to minimize alerting time from the occurence of an accident. The ELT signals relayed via satellite to the ground allowed the approximate position of the ELT to be determined. Additional satellites with COSPAS/SARSAT were periodically launched to ensure adequate system capability. In 1984, the sponsors of COSPAS and SARSAT signed the first agreement on maintaining the system beyond the 1980s.
20050328: FAA formally delayed – until April 6, 2006 – the deadline by which Part 145 repair stations must establish an approved training program. FAA called the one?year delay necessary because the agency had not yet released guidance material to help repair stations develop appropriate training programs.
20140328: FAA published a revised version of AC No: 20-138D that clarified and added new guidance material to the airworthiness approval process for a variety of GPS systems, including augmented GPS and required navigation (RNAV) equipment for required navigation performance (RNP) operations and baro-Vnav equipment. Several changes covered: the differences between equipment capability and installed limitations; clarification of the database configuration and equipment capability; adding step-down fixes to navigation databases; and a new appendix for demonstrating radius to fix (RF) leg capability and RNP prediction guidance for RNP authorization-required approaches.
20200328: FAA issued guidance for states, localities, and territories that had implemented or might consider implementing quarantine, travel restrictions, and screening requirements on individuals entering from certain locations within the United States and territories. The guidance stated there should be coordination with aviation stakeholders 48 hours before a restriction was imposed; air transportation workers, federal aviation and security personnel were exempt from any restrictions; and no measure could be taken to close a federally funded airport without FAA approval.
20210328: FAA’s Mike Monroney Center Aeronautical Center announced a three-year MOU with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma to study how Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) could best transport cargo, including parcels, at lower altitudes.