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This Day in FAA History: October 10th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19291010: The Aeronautics Branch inaugurated position-reporting service for planes flying the Federal airways.
19511010: The President approved the Mutual Security Act of 1951 to maintain security and promote foreign policy by furnishing military, economic, and technical assistance to friendly nations in the interest of international peace and security. The plan included a number of aviation assistance programs. The Mutual Security Act of 1952 continued the Mutual Security Agency, established to administer the act, until August 1, 1953, when its functions were transferred to the Foreign Operations Administration. The State Department’s International Cooperation Commission and the Department of Defense assumed FOA’s responsibilities on June 30, 1955.
19591010: Pan American World Airways inaugurated round-the-world jet service (excluding the continental United States) using intercontinental versions of the Boeing 707. On October 27, Australia’s Qantas Empire Airways began operating the first jet service to completely circle the globe.
19681010: Enactment of Public Law 90-566 authorized higher overtime pay for certain FAA employees. Those nonmanagerial employees with duties critical to the daily operation of the air traffic control and navigation system became eligible for overtime pay at one and a half times their regular pay in grades up to and including GS-14. The affected employees–who worked in air traffic control, flight inspection of navigational aids, and airway facility maintenance–were thus excepted from a general ceiling that limited overtime pay to one and a half times the regular pay for the first step of pay grade GS-10.
19851010: FAA and general aviation manufacturers gave a preview of a “Back to Basics” safety program to a group of pilots at the National Air and Space Museum. Beginning on January 1, 1986, the program used presentations and clinics to increase pilot awareness of a different safety topic each quarter for three years. The first year’s topics included: takeoff and landing; collision avoidance; weather; and fueling and fuel planning. The program proved successful, and on January 1, 1990, FAA began a Back to Basic II program scheduled to run through 1994.
19861010: FAA issued an enforcement bulletin implementing a 60-day suspension of the certificate of any unauthorized pilot who entered a Terminal Control Area (TCA). The agency could seek harsher actions, including a $1,000 civil penalty, if there were aggravating circumstances, such as causing a near midair collision while illegally within a TCA. (See August 31, 1986, and March 5, 1990.)
19961010: FAA implemented the Metroplex Plan at Dallas/Fort Worth airport, making the airport capable of handling simultaneous triple landings and greatly increasing air traffic capacity. The plan entailed 68 construction projects, including two high-frequency radio towers, and an additional runway, and a new terminal radar approach control facility (TRACON), which was the latest element to be commissioned. New twin air traffic control towers had been commissioned at Dallas/Fort Worth on June 15, 1994, giving the airport a total of three working towers.
20081010: FAA published final rules to address congestion at New York area airports by auctioning a limited number of landing and take-off slots at each of the region’s three airports. Under the final rules, airlines operating at Kennedy, Newark, and LaGuardia would receive a 10-year ownership of the vast majority of FAA slots they currently operated. However, the new rules called for a gradual auctioning over the next five years of up to 10 percent of the landing and take off slots these airlines currently operated free of charge. The rules lowered the hourly operating cap at LaGuardia airport from 75 slots per hour to 71 slots per hour by “retiring” an additional five percent of the slots currently being used. Existing airlines at LaGuardia would keep 988 of the slots they currently operated. The remaining 113 slots would be made available over the next five years by auction to airlines interested in starting new service or expanding current operations at the airport. Under the rules for Kennedy and Newark, existing airlines would keep 1,035 of the slots they operated at Kennedy and 1,154 of the 1,245 slots they operated at Newark. The remaining 89 slots at Kennedy and 91 slots at Newark would be made available over a five-year period for airlines wishing to expand their current operations or start new services at either of the airports. (See October 9, 2008; December 8, 2008.)
20101010: Controllers began operations in the new air traffic control tower at LaGuardia Airport. FAA formally dedicated the new tower on January 21, 2011.
20161010: Ground was broken on a new $240 million airport in Williston, North Dakota. FAA provided funding for 50 percent of the project cost, while the city of Williston and the state of North Dakota funded the rest.
20191010: Williston Basin International Airport, in North Dakota, opened. Williston’s old airport, Sloulin Field International, which opened in 1947, had closed the day before. The new airport cost $273 million, financed with $106 million from the FAA, $55 million from the state, and $112 million from bonds supported by airport revenue.