Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19580721: A Presidential Emergency Board issued its report on a dispute between the Eastern Air Lines and unions representing its pilots and flight engineers. President Eisenhower had appointed the board the previous January to mediate the controversy over the qualifications of the flight engineer on turbojet transports. The board concluded that a flight engineer on jetliners should have piloting qualifications and recommended that Eastern train its flight engineers to qualify for a commercial pilot’s certificate. Despite the board’s report in the Eastern dispute, American Airlines decided to give the third seat on the Boeing 707 to mechanic-trained flight engineers. Reacting to that decision, American’s pilots walked off the job on December 19. After 23 days, the strike ended when American agreed to add a third pilot (a fourth crew member) to the 707 cockpit. Other airlines that traditionally employed mechanic-trained flight engineers (Pan Am, Western, Eastern, and TWA) signed similar labor agreements with the Air Line Pilots Association requiring them to employ a fourth person in the jet cockpit. (See July 21, 1958 and June 7, 1960.)
19630721: FAA commissioned a new building for the New York air route traffic control center at Islip, N.Y. This new building brought into service the first real-time solid-state computer to be used by the FAA in air traffic control. Formal dedication ceremonies took place September 7-8, 1963. The New York center’s old building, in use since 1956, had been located at New York International Airport (Idlewild).
19640721: Pan American World Airways announced that inertial navigation systems would be installed on most of its jet aircraft. (See September 7, 1961, and December 15, 1969.) An inertial navigation system, being independent of external referents, permitted increased accuracy in navigation over oceans and other expanses where surface navigation aids were not available and where the conventional magnetic compass was unreliable (as in transpolar flight).
19670721: FAA established the Office of Noise Abatement, a measure of the importance the agency attached to the problem of aircraft-engine noise. Hitherto, the agency’s noise-abatement program had been under the direction of a small noise abatement staff. (See April 8, 1966, and November 27, 1968.)
19670721: FAA retitled the Associate Administrator for Programs the Associate Administrator for Operations. (See June 12, 1963.)
19680721: President Johnson signed Public Law 90-411, which amended the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to require aircraft noise abatement regulation. The act vested in the FAA Administrator the power, after consultation with the Secretary of Transportation, to: prescribe and amend standards for the measurement of aircraft-engine noise and sonic boom; prescribe noise standards as criteria for aircraft certification; require the retrofit of existing aircraft with quieter engines or noise-abating devices; enforce operating procedures that reduce noise; and ban overland supersonic flights of civil aircraft. (See December 1, 1969, and October 27, 1972.)
19690721: The pilots of Piedmont Airlines went on strike when the company moved to reduce its Boeing 737 cockpit crew to two men. On August 14, 1969, Piedmont secured a Federal injunction ordering its pilots back to work. The dispute raged for months, but was eventually resolved when the pilots accepted a two-man crew complement in exchange for higher pay. The Air Line Pilots Association refused to sign the agreement, although it took no action against Piedmont pilots for violating its constitution (see November 20- 29, 1966). Piedmont permanently switched to two-man crews on its 737s on January 9, 1973. (See July 25, 1967 and November 23, 1971.)
19770721: FAA issued an advisory circular on ozone irritation in aircraft cabins. Beginning in the winter of 1976, persons on high-altitude flights had reported such symptoms as shortness of breath, coughing, and eye irritation. By March 1977, FAA had concluded that ozone was the probable cause. Although the main atmospheric ozone layer lies above altitudes normally used by airliners, concentrations of the gas occasionally descend lower, particularly at high latitudes and during certain seasons of the year. FAA recommended that pilots descend to lower altitudes if effects of ozone contamination were noted. If pilots experienced significant exposure to the gas, they were advised to breathe pure oxygen before landing to counteract ozone’s known effect on night vision. FAA also undertook research on more permanent ways of dealing with the problem. (See February 20, 1980.)
19860721: FAA published a rule setting stricter flammability standards for materials used in cabins of existing and future airliners with 20 or more passenger seats. The new standards required use of fire resistant and slower-burning materials for cabin sidewalls, ceilings, partitions, storage bins, galleys, and other interior structures. Establishment of such standards had been one of the recommendations of the Special Aviation Fire and Explosion Reduction (SAFER) Advisory Committee (see September 10, 1980). The necessary research had been conducted primarily at the FAA Technical Center, and further toxicity studies had been carried out at the agency’s Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI). The new rule was effective on August 20, 1986, but prescribed a phased compliance schedule stretching over four years.
20030721: Effective this date, FAA amended the airworthiness standards applicable to the lower deck service compartments of transport category airplanes. The change required that two-way voice communication systems between lower deck service compartments and the flightdeck remain available following loss of the normal electrical power generating system. It also clarified the requirements for seats installed in the lower deck service compartment. While adoption of the amendment would not affect then current industry design practices, it would eliminate regulatory differences between the airworthiness standards of the U.S. and requirements of the Joint Aviation Authorities.
20080721: FAA issued a final rule that specified within two years all new transport category aircraft must include technology designed to significantly reduce the risk of center fuel tank fires. In addition, passenger aircraft built after 1991 must be retrofitted with technology designed to keep center fuel tanks from catching fire. The rule did not direct the adoption of specific inerting technology, but established a performance-based set of requirements that set acceptable flammability exposure values in tanks most prone to explosion or required the installation of an ignition mitigation means in an affected fuel tank. The cost of installing the new technology would range from $92,000 to $311,000 per aircraft, depending on its size. The U.S. aircraft to be retrofitted included approximately 2,730 aircraft belonging to the A320 family of 900 airplanes, 50 A330s, 965 Boeing 737s, 60 Boeing 747s, 475 Boeing 757s, 150 Boeing 767s and 130 Boeing 777s. (See December 10, 2007.)
20220721: DOT issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and Airport Concession program regulations. Both programs were created to prevent discrimination and alleviate the effects of previous bias toward small businesses owned and operated by disadvantaged individuals. The proposal included:
- Increasing the personal net worth (PNW) limit from $1.32 million to $1.6 million and excluding retirement assets from PNW calculations
- Formally adopting COVID-19 flexibilities such as virtual on-site visits
- Empowering certified firms to market themselves to prime contractors via expanded State directories
- Helping more small businesses participate in FAA-assisted airport projects by requiring airports to remove obstacles and adopt more race-neutral strategies
- Strengthening prompt payment monitoring and oversight requirements to help ensure that DBEs in all subcontracting tiers are promptly paid
