This Day in FAA History: September 8th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19600908: FAA issued a new aircraft noise abatement technical planning guide for use by Federal and local officials. The guide discouraged certain kinds of construction in areas around large airports, such as residential subdivisions, schools, churches, hospitals, and other places of public assembly. Land lying immediately under the takeoff and landing patterns of jet runways, the guide recommended, should be utilized wherever possible for industrial, commercial, agricultural, or recreational purposes.
19600908: FAA adopted the British RAE visual glide path indicator landing lights as a national standard for use at U.S. airports. Developed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment in England, the RAE system required no equipment of any kind in the aircraft cockpit. Where installed at airports, it promoted air safety by reducing the possibility that aircraft might overshoot or undershoot the runway, and it helped abate noise by keeping aircraft as high during landing approach as safety factors permitted.
19740908: A bomb exploded in the aft cargo compartment of a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707. The flight had originated in Tel Aviv, stopped over at Athens, and was bound for Rome and then New York. The explosion disabled the aircraft’s control system, and the 707 crashed into the Ionian Sea with the loss of all 88 persons aboard. Floating debris and 24 bodies were recovered, but the wreckage was not raised from the sea bottom.
19820908: FAA retitled the Associate Administrator for Policy and International Aviation Affairs the Associate Administrator for Policy and International Aviation. The agency also retitled the Office of International Aviation Affairs as the Office of International Aviation.
19930908: An administrative law judge recommended that DOT deny the application of Friendship Airlines, later renamed ATX, to operate as an air carrier. The company had been founded by former Texas Air chairman Frank Lorenzo. Although DOT ordered the judge to reopen hearings, he reconfirmed his recommendation on December 22. On April 5, 1994, DOT rejected the application, citing past safety and regulatory compliance problems experienced by airlines run by Lorenzo.
19940908: A USAir Boeing 737 crashed in Aliquippa, Pa., as it approached Pittsburgh airport. All 132 persons aboard died in the accident, the cause of which proved difficult to determine. Prompted by this crash and an earlier one at Colorado Springs (see March 3, 1991), FAA conducted a critical design review of the 737 flight control system. On May 3, 1995, the review team reported that it had found no critical flaws but made a number of recommendations for improving the aircraft’s safety margin (see August 22, 1996). Following the accident, NTSB urged that upgraded Flight Data Recorders (FDRs) be required on 737s by the end of 1995 and on other large airliners by January 1, 1998. FAA, however, called for voluntary upgrading of FDRs on 737s while the agency developed comprehensive rulemaking on the FDR issue (see July 16, 1996).
19980908: The 100th commercial space launch licensed by the U.S. took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (See August 26, 1998; September 24, 1998.)
20000908: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would incorporate a new flame propagation standard into regulations applicable to new transport category aircraft. Newly type certified airplanes and newly manufactured airplanes entering service three years after the effective date of the regulation would be required to comply. (See May 25, 2000; September 2, 2003.)
20140908: FAA announced the selection of four unleaded fuels for further evaluation as part of the piston aviation fuels initiative (PAFI), a government and industry initiative designed to help the general aviation industry transition to an unleaded aviation gasoline. Shell and TOTAL, with one fuel each, and Swift Fuels, with two fuels, worked with FAA on Phase 1 testing, which began in the fall of 2014 and was scheduled to conclude in fall 2015. Based on the results of the Phase 1 laboratory and rig testing, FAA anticipated the selection of two or three fuels for Phase 2 engine and aircraft testing. That tests would generate standardized qualification and certification data for candidate fuels, along with property and performance data. FAA expected the testing process to conclude in 2018. (See June 10, 2013.)
20150908: FAA announced $100 million contract awards to eight companies to develop and demonstrate technologies that reduced fuel consumption, emissions, and noise under the second phase of its Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (CLEEN II) program. Under CLEEN II, FAA selected eight companies: Aurora Flight Sciences; The Boeing Co.; General Electric (GE) Aviation; Delta TechOps/MDS Coating Technologies/America’s Phenix; Honeywell Aerospace; Pratt & Whitney; Rolls-Royce-Corp.; and Rohr, Inc./UTC Aerospace Systems. The companies would match or exceed FAA’s investment, bringing the total to at least $200 million. The eight awardees worked to develop a variety of airframe and engine technologies. Each effort would culminate in a demonstration aimed at bringing the product to market. CLEEN II would nurture these technologies through crucial phases in their maturation, including full-scale ground and flight test demonstrations. (See June 24, 2010; September 10, 2021.)
20150908: An engine on British Airways Flight 2276, a Boeing 777, caught fire while waiting to take off from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. NTSB investigators subsequently found evidence of disk failure in the engine. No passengers or crew suffered major injury while evacuating the plane.
20160908: FAA issued a statement advising airline passengers not to turn on or charge their Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd., Galaxy Note 7 smartphones during flights or stow them in checked baggage, because of concerns over the phones’ fire-prone ion-lithium batteries. Samsung subsequently recalled the phones. (See February 22, 2016; October 14, 2016.)
20200908: FAA announced an Aviation Maintenance Technical Workforce Development Grant Program to recruit students for careers in aviation maintenance. The program was designed to support projects such as establishing new educational programs, providing scholarships or apprenticeships, supporting career outreach efforts, and enhancing aviation maintenance technical education. Congress appropriated $5 million in fiscal year 2020 to fund projects to address the projected shortages of aviation maintenance technical workers. Eligible groups could apply for grants from $25,000 to $500,000 for any one grant in any one fiscal year. (See September 9, 2020.)
20200908: FAA extended the special federal aviation regulation from September 18, 2020 to September 18, 2023, that prohibited certain flight operations in the Pyongyang Flight Information Region by all: U.S. air carriers; U.S. commercial operators; persons exercising the privileges of an airman certificate issued by the FAA, except when such persons are operating U.S.-registered aircraft for a foreign air carrier; and operators of U.S.-registered civil aircraft, except when the operator of such aircraft is a foreign air carrier. (See September 18, 2018.)
20220908: FAA announced it planned to establish the agency’s largest solar project to date at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The panels are expected to produce 2,600 megawatt hours annually, the equivalent needed to power 260 average homes. The project will reduce the Center’s electric bill by an estimated $170,000 – $200,000 annually.
20230908: FAA closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation. The final report cited multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence. Corrective actions included redesigns of vehicle hardware to avoid leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, further analysis and testing of safety-critical systems and components, including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of other change control practices. (See April 20, 2022; November 15, 2023.)