This Day in FAA History: November 22nd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19461122: CAA Administator Wright and CAB Chairman James M. Landis established a CAA-CAB Committee, a six-man group created to facilitate coordination between the two bodies.
19481122: The Wright brothers’ Kitty Hawk airplane, the Flyer I, arrived at the Smithsonian Institution after 20 years in the South Kensington Museum, London.
19591122: An extensive reorganization of FAA’s Bureau of Research and Development became effective. In place of the six previous divisions plus the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center (NAFEC) at Atlantic City, N.J., the new structure embodied ten divisions consisting of the following five staff and five program divisions, respectively: Plans, Operations, Contracts, Budget, and Administrative Services; Research, Test and Experimentation, Systems Engineering, Air Defense Integration, and Development.
19631122: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and was succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson.
19631122: FAA’s Washington headquarters staff began moving into the newly completed Federal Office Building 10A, at 800 Independence Avenue, SW. Completed in December, the move brought together under one roof personnel formerly housed in several widely dispersed buildings, including some “temporary” buildings of World War II vintage.
19681122: In accordance with a plan approved in February 1968, FAA ordered a realignment of relationships between its regional and area offices. The aim was to give area managers more time for day-to-day operational functions by shifting many functions to the regional headquarters. In the area of facilities and equipment, the regions assumed responsibility for contracting, program control, and installation; however, the area offices continued to make site investigations, perform preliminary engineering and planning, and participate in acceptance inspections. The regions assumed final authority for air carrier enforcement actions; however, area offices, in conjunction with general aviation district offices, continued to handle all air taxi and general aviation enforcement actions. The area compliance and security branches, and the area counsels, were abolished and their functions assumed by the regions. The area budget and management branches were also abolished, and the area offices retained only small administrative staffs. Field offices and facilities now submitted requests for budgetary resources directly to the regional offices. The regional offices assumed all formal management analysis functions. The regions also provided a full range of personnel and training services to the area offices, which retained only small personnel and training staffs.
This realignment was the first such change since the 18 area offices in the contiguous United States had been established under the agency’s long-range decentralization program (see May 18, 1965, and May 22, 1969).
19691122: Effective this date, FAA increased minimum flight-time requirements for an airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate from 1,200 to 1,500 hours. All flight time logged as second-incommand in airline operations would be credited toward the ATP certificate, as would a limited amount of flight engineer time.
19721122: President Nixon lifted a 22-year-old restriction on travel of U.S. airliners to the People’s Republic of China as part of a general rapprochement between the two countries. Such flights had been banned since 1950 by an Excutive Order issued by President Truman during the Korean War.
20021122: The White House announced plans to nominate Robert Sturgell, senior counsel to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, to fill the vacant FAA deputy administrator post. (See September 13, 2002.)
20101122: FAA issued its first license permitting the reentry to earth of a privately developed spacecraft to the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX). The Space X Dragon space capsule launched atop the Falcon 9 rocket on December 8 and returned to earth three hours later. The unmanned flight was a precursor to NASA and SpaceX efforts to provide commercial trips to the International Space Station with cargo and crew.
20121122: Dan McKinnon, who helped oversee the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry as the last chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) in the early 1980s, died at the age of 78. In a 1984 speech to the Aero Club of Washington, McKinnon counted among his accomplishments a tough new U.S. policy to negotiate quid pro quos for U.S. aviation interests in bilateral accords; the elimination of antitrust immunity for travel agents to sell airline tickets; and the transfer of the remaining CAB functions to the U.S. Transportation Department. (See December 31, 1984.)
20131122: FAA dedicated a new, 236-foot tall air traffic control tower at Oakland International Airport. A $33.2 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant helped pay for constructing the tower and a 14,000-square-foot base building. The grant was FAA’s largest single ARRA award. The new control tower replaced two air traffic control towers that served Oakland International Airport for more than 40 years. A 158-foot-tall tower on the southern portion of the airfield was built in 1962 as a part of a terminal expansion project. In 1972, construction of a large hangar blocked some views from the south tower, requiring the Port of Oakland to build a second tower to handle traffic on the north runways. The total cost of the new tower, including site preparation, electronics, air traffic control equipment, utilities, and installation of equipment was $51 million. (See October 15, 2010.)
20131122: Boeing issued a notice urging carriers to avoid flying 747-8 and 787 Dreamliner planes with engines made by General Electric at high attitude within 50 nautical miles of thunderstorms that might contain ice crystals. The move followed six incidents from April to November involving five 747-8s and one 787 when aircraft powered by GE’s GEnx engines suffered temporary loss of thrust while flying at high altitude. The problem was caused by a build-up of ice crystals, initially just behind the front fan, said a GE spokesman, adding that all of the aircraft landed at their planned destinations safely. (See September 30, 2013; November 27, 2013.)
20161122: DOT’s office of aviation enforcement and proceedings, a unit within the office of the general counsel, issued a new enforcement policy on extended tarmac delays in light of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016. Under the new policy, the DOT would not take enforcement action against U.S. and foreign airlines for lengthy tarmac delays on departing flights so long as airlines returned their aircraft to the gate or another suitable disembarkation point no later than three hours for domestic flights and no later than four hours for international flights after the main aircraft door had closed in preparation for departure. (See July 15, 2016.)
20191122: In a low key ceremony at its Renton, Washington, plant, Boeing unveiled its 737 Max 10, the largest version of the Max jet.