This Day in FAA History: September 10th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19300910: The Taylor E-2 Cub made its first flight. This design evolved into the famous Piper Cub, which was introduced in 1938 and became one of the world’s most popular general aviation airplanes.
19360910: Deutsche Luft Hansa’s twin-engine Dornier Do.18 flying boat Zephyr alighted offshore of Port Washington, N.Y., after a flight of 22 hours 18 minutes from Horta in the Azores, where it had been catapulted from the deck of a depot ship. This was the first of a series of German survey flights for possible transatlantic air mail service. The Germans continued such experimental flights into 1938.
19440910: The first airplane designed in World War II exclusively to carry cargo, the C-82, was successfully test-flown at the Fairchild aircraft plant in Hagerstown, Md. Fairchild manufactured 220 planes for the Air Force before discontinuing production in 1948.
19590910: To aid in the control of civil and military air traffic, FAA put into operation in the New York area a 64-code air traffic control radar beacon system, commonly known as secondary radar. A descendant of the World War II IFF (Identification, Friend, or Foe), the new equipment was designed to reinforce primary radar signals and permit positive identification of individual aircraft carrying transponders. By May of the following year, 20 radar beacons had been put in operation at 16 air route traffic control centers. (See April 7, 1961.)
19600910: The Department of Defense conducted Operation Sky-Shield, a giant air defense drill, which necessitated the grounding of all commercial and general aviation aircraft throughout the North American continent for a six-hour period.
19610910: The White House released the Project Horizon task force report (see March 3, 1961) on aviation goals for the 1960s with a presidential endorsement and instructions to the FAA Administrator to take the lead in its implementation. At the same time, the President instructed the Secretary of Commerce to take Horizon proposals fully into account in preparing a report on overall transportation policies, thus aiding in the quest for “an integrated national aviation program within a broad national transportation policy.”
The 239-page report defined 24 national aviation goals and outlined various programs aimed at helping to achieve those important objectives. Among the major points were those that called for:
* Maintaining U.S. leadership in world aviation.
* Basic reorientation of the Federal government’s approach to the economic regulation of the airlines to avert the threatened collapse of the industry’s financial structure.
* Development of a Mach 3 supersonic commercial transport.
* More emphasis on the aeronautical as opposed to astronautical aspects of the Federal R&D effort.
* A comprehensive study of international aviation relations, commissioned by the President. * Enactment of legislation tailored to aviation’s needs to replace the Railway Labor Act.
* Continued effort to achieve a common civil-military air traffic control and air navigation system, including the establishment of a Federal Aviation Service within the FAA that would become an integral part of the military services in time of war.
* Implementation of pending Project Beacon recommendations on air traffic control (see September 11, 1961).
19670910: A rule requiring that the design of transport category airplanes include the protection of the fuel system against lightning became effective.
A special FAA-Air Force task force directed the evacuation and worked round the clock to restore critical navaids and airport capabilities. Portable equipment (including a tower, VOR, and TACAN) was air lifted to the island. Within 48 hours after the typhoon struck, the airport had resumed transpacific airlift operations on a reduced scale. By the last week in September, all essential facilities of both the airport and the center had returned to service.
19700910: The Air Transport Association settled a $50 million damage suit against PATCO for its role in the 1970 strike. As part of the settlement, PATCO remained under a permanent injunction against any future job action. (See April 23, 1970, and January 29, 1971.)
19730910: FAA gave its Office of Public Affairs new functions and redesignated it as the Office of Information Services, effective this date, as part of an effort to introduce greater economy and efficiency into the agency (see June 19, 1969). The new office consolidated public and employee information activities that had been dispersed over six office elements. It assumed (l) the agency’s public affairs functions, (2) the employee communication functions of the Associate Administrator for Manpower, (3) the women’s aviation activities of the Office of General Aviation, (4) the audiovisual and public inquiry functions of the Office of Headquarters Operations, (5) the congressional liaison functions of the Deputy Administrator, and (6) the history functions of the Office of Management Systems. (See July 12, 1976.)
19760910: A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collided over Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing all 176 occupants of the two airplanes, a higher toll than in any previous civil midair collision. In May 1977, a Yugoslav court sentenced an air traffic controller to 7 years in prison for negligence in handling the two aircraft, the first known criminal prosecution of a civilian controller for negligent performance of duties.
19760910: The first successful hijacking of a scheduled American air carrier aircraft since comprehensive security measures were instituted on December 5, 1972, occurred when five Croatian nationalists commandeered a TWA jetliner en route from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Chicago. The hijackers seized the plane by threatening to blow it up with realistic-looking “bombs” they had assembled in a lavatory from an assortment of innocuous objects brought aboard on their persons and in their carry-on luggage. To bolster their deception, they revealed the location of a real bomb in a New York subway locker. That device exploded after removal to a disposal area, killing one policeman. The hijackers demanded that newspapers publish a pro-Croatian manifesto and that aircraft drop leaflets over cities in the U.S., Canada, England, and France. This was complied with, and the hijackers eventually surrendered in France.
19780910: The following changes in the Washington Headquarters organization became effective on this date
* The Office of General Aviation was abolished. The aviation education program was transferred to the Office of Aviation Policy.
* The Associate Administrator for Policy Development and Review was redesignated as the Associate Administrator for Policy and International Aviation Affairs.
* The Office of International Aviation Affairs was placed under the executive direction of the Associate Administrator for Policy and International Aviation Affairs. The position of Assistant Administrator for International Aviation Affairs was retitled Director of International Aviation Affairs.
* The Office of Environmental Quality was renamed the Office of Environment and Energy to reflect the newly assigned responsibility for national aviation policy concerning energy matters (see December 22, 1979).
19800910: The Special Aviation Fire and Explosion Reduction (SAFER) Advisory Committee (see June 26, 1978) released its final report. The committee reported that, over the past 15 years, fatalities due to post-crash fire or its effects in U.S. scheduled air carrier operations had averaged about 32 per year. It concluded that, with the exception of toxic hazards assessment, aircraft fire research had been reasonably well funded since the early- to mid-1970s. The SAFER group’s most urgent recommendation was to expedite the investigation and validation of anti-misting kerosene, known as AMK (see December 1, 1984). Among the numerous additional recommendations were: mandatory fuel tank vent protection; maximizing the probability of engine fuel shut-off in potential fire situations; research on lowering the flashpoint of kerosene fuels; improved accident investigation and reporting; research to establish the contribution of cabin interior materials to the post-crash fire hazard; development of fire-blocking layers for seats; accelerated toxicity research; radiant heat resistance standards for evacuation slides; and development of improved fire-resistant cabin windows. In conclusion, the committee’s report urged FAA to create a standing advisory committee to provide regular expert advice in the field of fire and explosion research. FAA set up working groups to examine the SAFER recommendations and take rulemaking action when feasible. (See October 26, 1984.)
20080910: Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters directed FAA to implement 13 new safety recommendations made by the team tasked with reviewing the U.S. aviation safety system. Peters said the team’s report confirmed the basic approach to aviation safety in the United States had generated unprecedented results, but that there were ways to make the system even safer. In response to a key recommendation by the review team, Peters committed FAA to have guidance in place by the end of the year to ensure that airworthiness directives and their deadlines were fully understood by all appropriate FAA officials and airlines. The review team also recommended new safeguards against FAA personnel developing “overly cozy” relationships with the airlines they regulated through regular audits of field offices where the managerial team had been in place for more than three years. Consistent with recommendations to improve FAA’s safety culture, the Secretary also charged the agency with developing, and having underway within six months, a new training program for safety managers and inspectors. (See September 5, 2008; November 20, 2009.)
20140910: FAA approved an emergency certificate of waiver or authorization for the use of an UAS in the search for a missing woman near Dallas, TX. The agency approved emergency certificates for natural disaster relief, search and rescue operations, and other urgent circumstances. Under the emergency COA, Texas EquuSearch could operate its aircraft from September 11 until sunset September 15. FAA issued the COA to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of Gaithersburg, MD, at the request of the Plano Police Department. NIST had a previously existing relationship with Texas EquuSearch, a non-profit organization that assisted with locating missing individuals. (See August 31, 2014; September 25, 2014.)
20210910: TSA announced an increase in the range of civil penalties that might be imposed on individuals who violated the federal mask mandate at airports, on commercial aircraft, and in various modes of surface transportation, including passenger railroads, intercity bus services, and other public transportation. The new range of penalties were $500-$1000 for first offenders and $1000-$3000 for second offenders. (See January 31, 2021.)
20210910: FAA announced it had awarded more than $100 million for companies to help develop technologies that reduce fuel use, emissions and noise. Under the Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) Program’s phase 2, FAA and six industry partners planned to focus on reducing aviation emissions and noise, including pursuing goals of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by improving fuel efficiency by at least 20 percent below the relevant ICAO standard; NOx emissions by 70 percent relative to the most recent ICAO standard; particulate matter emissions below the ICAO standard; and noise by 25 dB cumulative relative to the FAA Stage 5 standard. (See September 8, 2015.)