This Day in FAA History: September 21st

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19590921: FAA announced that its representatives and those of DOD and the Air Force had signed an agreement to establish nine FAA air route traffic control centers at Air Force SAGE supercombat centers. The supercombat centers were part of the SAGE (semiautomatic ground environment) system for radar surveillance and identification of air traffic for air defense. (See July 10, 1956, and April 12, 1960.)
19610921: Senator A. S. Mike Monroney (D.-Okla.) introduced legislation proposed by FAA Administrator Halaby for creation of a Federal Aviation Service (FAS) to assure the continuity of essential airways services during any national emergency. Representative Oren Harris (D.-Ark.) introduced a similar bill in the House. The proposal was submitted in accordance with section 302(g) of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, which directed the Administrator, in consultation with other affected Federal agencies, to study the special personnel problem inherent in the functions of the FAA and make recommendations to the Congress. Though basically civilian in character, the recommended FAS could be placed in military status by the President if necessary for defense purposes. DOD viewed such legislation as prerequisite to the eventual transfer of military air traffic control and air navigation facilities to FAA contemplated by the Federal Aviation Act. (See February 17, 1962.)
19640921: The Air Force XB-70A supersonic aircraft made its first flight. Subsequent flights of this steel-bodied airplane, which had been conceived as a bomber but recast as a research aircraft, provided the FAA-managed U.S. supersonic transport development program with useful technical data. (See June 8, 1966.)
The air traffic control system targeted for replacement was essentially a manually operated system employing radar, general purpose computers, radio communications, and air traffic controllers. Only five ARTCCs (New York, Boston, Washington, Cleveland, and Indianapolis) had computers capable of processing flight data, calculating flight progress, checking for errors, and distributing flight data to control sectors. The old system had a two-dimensional radar display, which permitted controllers to view only an aircraft’s range and bearing. Vital information such as altitude and identity was obtained through voice contact with the pilot or from the flight plan. To retain the correct identity of an aircraft target, controllers were required to tag the targets with plastic markers (known as “shrimp boats”) and move the markers by hand across the radar display. The planned semiautomated system would perform these functions automatically, faster, and more accurately than the controller. Properly equipped aircraft would report their altitude, identity, and other flight data automatically at any given time. The computer processed messages would appear on a radar display next to the aircraft they identified, in the form of alphanumeric symbols which would make the radar display three-dimensional in effect. (See October 6, 1964, May 24, 1965, and December 30, 1968.)
19700921: The Department of Transportation announced the appointment of Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (USAF-Ret), as Director of Civil Aviation Security for DOT. Davis advised the Secretary of Transportation on the Department’s antihijacking program and coordinated the functions of the airport and airborne security force, composed of components from the Departments of Defense, Justice, Transportation, and Treasury, and other government agencies. (See September 11, 1970.)
19870921: Administrator McArtor announced that FAA would begin a special inspection of the U.S. aircraft manufacturing industry to ensure that the companies were following proper procedures and had updated their techniques to keep up with technology (see July 27, 1987). On January 13, 1989, the agency completed these Operation Snapshot inspections of 88 manufacturers.
19940921: FAA issued a warning concerning certain types of child restraint systems (CRSs) that were adequate for use in motor vehicles but not in aircraft. The statement was based on a research report by the agency’s Civil Aeromedical Institute. FAA announced that it would consider banning these CRS types, and would also: conduct further research; cooperate with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to revise CRS standards and labeling; and urge airlines to adopt cost-saving policies that would encourage parents to use CRSs. (See September 15, 1992, and June 8, 1995.)
20090921: FAA announced approval of Honeywell’s Smartpath Precision Landing System, which provided precise navigation service based on the global positioning system (GPS). The first U.S.-approved system would be located in Memphis, TN, and would become operational in early 2010. The ground-base system (GBAS) augmented GPS to provide precision approach guidance to all qualifying runways at an airport. It monitored the GPS signals to detect errors and augment accuracy by transmitting correction messages to aircraft via local radio broadcast. GBAS would initially supplement the legacy Instrument Landing Systems used at airports. FAA’s NextGen Implementation Plan had identified GBAS as an enabler for descent and approach operations to increase capacity at crowded airports. The Honeywell system was approved for precision approach operations down to 200 feet above the surface. (See December 8, 2008.)
20120921: The new air traffic control tower at Missoula International Airport (MT) opened, replacing a tower built in 1961.
20170921: The first known mid-air collision between a drone and an aircraft occurred when a civilian drown collided with a U.S. Army UH-60 helicopter east of Staten Island, NY. The Army helicopter sustained damage to its main rotor blade, window frame, and transmission deck. NTSB investigators recovered a motor and arm from the drone, identified as a DJI Phantom 4. On December 14, 2017, NTSB said the collision was caused by the drone operator’s failure to see the helicopter.
20180921: FAA signed separate agreements with Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC) and Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), which made it easier to approve each country’s aircraft and aviation products. The agency signed the first FAA-ANAC Implementation Procedures Agreement (IPA) in September 2006, with two amendments thereafter. The latest revision expanded the IPA to include Part 23 (general aviation aircraft) as well as risk based decision criteria for the U.S. and Brazil to validate each other’s aviation products. FAA and TCCA signed a Shared Surveillance Management Plan that defined the process by which they recognized each other’s surveillance of manufacturers and their suppliers in the United States and Canada. The Plan ensured manufacturers, certificate holders, production approval holders, and suppliers complied with the responsible countries’ applicable regulatory requirements.
20210921: The Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block an alliance between American Airlines and JetBlue, criticizing it as a “de facto merger” that reduced competition. The lawsuit comes after President Biden specifically named the airline industry as being too heavily concentrated in a July executive order to crack down on anti-competitive practices.