Author: ENDaviationinequity

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19290204: The Aeronautics Branch established a Field Service Section which assumed certain duties performed by the former Airport Section, including assistance to municipalities and other organizations desiring to establish or improve airports. Five airport specialists, including the section chief, toured the U.S. to inspect sites, confer with officials, and address civic groups. The creation of the Field Service Section was part of a general reorganization of the Division of Airports and Aeronautic Information, formerly known as the Information Division, during fiscal 1929. (See November 1929.)
19490204: CAA granted authorization for commercial planes to use ground control approach (GCA) radar as a “primary aid” for bad-weather landings. (See April 9, 1947.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19520203: CAA put into effect a plan to consolidate aviation safety functions under one chief in each of its seven continental regions and to reorganize the Washington Office of Aviation Safety. Under development for more than a year, the program was intended to achieve better coordination between CAA’s field services and the public and the industry. Designed also to keep pace with rapid changes in technology, the reorganization placed air carrier and general aviation specialists in separate groups.
19590203: A Pan Am 707 entered a steep dive toward the Atlantic after its autopilot disengaged at 35,000 feet. The captain, who had been in the passenger cabin when the dive began, fought powerful gravity forces to return to the cockpit. Taking command from the copilot, he was able to end the dive at 6,000 feet.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19670202: FAA issued an advisory circular entitled “Regional Air Carrier Airport Planning” as an aid in determining when a single regional air carrier airport was preferable to two or more airports. In line with joint FAA-CAB policy (see May 2, 1961), the circular advised that a regional airport study should be made in specified circumstances involving inadequacies at existing airports located within 50 miles and one hour’s driving time of another air carrier airport or another community receiving scheduled service. (The National Airport Plan for fiscal years 1968-72, issued in April 1967, was the first such plan to identify locations that could be developed as regional airports.)
19700202: A rule effective this date permitted expanded use of FAA-approved airplane simulators in training airline crews. With the advances in flight simulation technology, the use of these simulators would help to ease the serious problems of congestion in the airspace by permitting more training on the ground.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19300201: The Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics terminated its activities. Established in January 1926 to support the development of American aviation in its formative years, the fund had promoted aeronautical education, subsidized research projects, and assisted efforts to develop commercial aircraft. Daniel Guggenheim intended that the fund be closed when private enterprise would find it “practicable and profitable to carry on.”
19430201: CAA inaugurated an expanded flight advisory service at all air route traffic control centers. The centers originated advisories on weather changes and hazardous conditions, and airway communication stations relayed this information to nonscheduled pilots.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19280131: The Aeronautics Branch’s Domestic Air News reported an early instance of airplane noise nuisance. The proprietor of the Cackle Corner Poultry Farm, Garrettsville, Ohio, complained to the Postmaster General that low-flying planes were disrupting egg production. The Postmaster General forwarded the letter to National Air Transport, Inc., the private company operating the New York-Chicago air mail route, suggesting it make a special effort to maintain altitude over Garrettsville.
19410131: CAA established a Standardization Center at Houston, Tex., to promote uniformity in the agency’s inspection and instruction methods and in examinations for all types of pilot certificates. The Center provided mandatory refresher courses for all flight and inspecting personnel, as well as required classes for new employees before they went to their regular post of duty.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19480130: Orville Wright died at age 76. His brother Wilbur had died of typhoid 36 years earlier, at age 45.
19640130: FAA established a staffing validation program to provide a systematic and standardized agencywide approach to the problem of developing accurate staffing requirements. Under this program, staffing standards would largely be determined by onsite factfinding studies conducted by specialists trained in the program’s concepts and techniques.
19740130: A Pan American Boeing 707 crashed short of the runway during a rain storm at Pago Pago, American Samoa. The impact force only slightly exceeded that of a normal landing, and only the copilot received traumatic injuries. Yet only 10 of the 101 persons aboard escaped the post-crash fire.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19290129: The Airways Division of the Department of Commerce turned on Beacon #25 at Miriam, Nevada, on the San Francisco-Salt Lake City Airway, completing the lighting of the transcontinental airway by closing the final twenty mile unlighted gap. (See July 1, 1927.)
19460129: CAA Administrator T. P. Wright received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for 1945 for notable achievement in the advancement of aeronautics.
19590129: The Civil Aeronautics Board issued the first certificates to supplemental air carriers. The certificated supplemental operators were authorized to offer unlimited domestic charter service, as well as up to ten round trips per month between any pair of U.S. points for individually ticketed passengers or individually waybilled cargo.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19660128: FAA published a rule requiring a life preserver or some other approved flotation device for each occupant of large aircraft used by air carriers or other commercial operators in all overwater operations. The compliance deadline was March 1, 1967, subsequently extended to September 1, 1967. Such devices had already been required for operations of large aircraft conducted over water at a horizontal distance of more than 50 miles from the nearest shoreline. (See January 4, 1965.)
19750128: The Secretary’s Task Force on the FAA Safety Mission convened to examine FAA’s organizational structure, management, and performance on safety issues. Secretary Claude S. Brinegar had appointed this special ten-person panel in response to criticism of FAA on such matters as the crash of TWA Flight 514 and the DC-10 cargo door problem (see December 1 and December 27, 1974).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19590127: The Convair 880 (Model 22) first flew. On May 1, 1960, FAA certificated this four-engine medium-range jet airliner with a maximum capacity of 110 passengers. The plane, built by General Dynamics Corporation, entered scheduled service on May 15, 1960, with Delta Air Lines.
19650127: The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Supersonic Transport Sonic Boom concluded that prototype development of a supersonic transport (SST) was “clearly warranted” by evidence from research, tests, and studies of sonic boom phenomena (see July 1, 1965). This finding was largely based on data collected by FAA in the Oklahoma City area (see February 3, 1964).
On April 25, 1965, FAA made public a summary of its Oklahoma City sonic boom study, in which U.S. Air Force jets had subjected residents to 1,253 booms during daylight hours.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19720126: FAA began a series of briefings for manufacturers as part of a new program to promote the export of U.S. aeronautical goods and services. The action was a response to requests by aeronautical manufacturers for the government to develop mechanisms to help them deal with stiffening foreign competition in world markets. The program involved: providing information on export opportunities through reports on the implementation of regional air navigation plans of the International Civil Aviation Organization; and formulating plans for eventual revision of bilateral airworthiness agreements as a way of facilitating U.S. exports and promoting worldwide commonality in airworthiness standards. (See Calendar year 1974.)
19830126: FAA announced that a year-long demonstration of the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) would begin at selected airports later in the year. The demonstration was a step toward FAA’s goal of developing an unmanned weather station that would employ standard weather sensors working in tandem with data processing equipment to produce weather observations for dissemination to pilots, controllers, and other users.