Author: ENDaviationinequity

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19400708: TWA employed the first flight engineer in U.S. scheduled domestic passenger service, on the Boeing 307B Stratoliner. The flight engineer took over system support functions, including the operation of the pressurization system, from the pilots. (See November 1, 1937 and July 10, 1945.)
19470708: The prototype Boeing 377 Stratocruiser first flew. The 377, an outgrowth of the military B29 Superfortress and the C-97 military transport, received its CAA type-certificate on September 3, 1948, and first saw service with Pan American World Airways on April 1, 1949. The plane had a spiral staircase leading down to a first class lounge in the lower fuselage. It could carry approximately 100 passengers or could be converted into a sleeper plane with 28 full-sized Pullman berths.
19710708: FAA put into operation a jet-propelled boat to conduct search and rescue operations in the event of a crash landing in the Potomac River near Washington National Airport.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290707: Transcontinental Air Transport inaugurated 48-hour coast-to-coast passenger transportation service, with air travel by day and rail travel by night. Charles A. Lindbergh flew the first plane over the route. (See May 16, 1928, and October 25, 1930.)
19380707: President Roosevelt named the five members of the Civil Aeronautics Authority (see June 29, 1938). The Chairman was to be Edward J. Noble, a Connecticut industrialist who had long had an interest in aviation and was one of the first private owners of an autogyro. The other members were Grant Mason, Harllee Branch, Oswald Ryan, and Robert H. Hinckley. (See April 12, 1939.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19360706: Federal air traffic control began as the Bureau of Air Commerce took over operation of the three airway traffic control centers at Newark, Chicago, and Cleveland. Up to this time, these centers had been operated by private airline companies (see December 1, 1935). The centers were placed under Earl F. Ward, whose appointment as Supervisor, Airway Traffic Control, had been announced on March 6, 1936. Ward reported to the chief of the Airline Inspection Service within the Air Regulation Division. When the Bureau assumed control of the centers, it hired fifteen center employees to become the original Federal corps of airway controllers.
19390706: Eastern Air Lines began the world’s first scheduled air mail service by a rotary winged aircraft, using a Kellet autogyro to fly from the roof of the Philadelphia Post Office to the airport at Camden, N.J. This experimental service lasted about one year. (See October 1, 1947.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19770705: FAA announced award of a contract for an engineering model of a new generation of Airport Surface Detection Equipment, designated ASDE-3. ASDE surface radar had been in service at U.S. airports since September 1960 (see that date). FAA planned to use ASDE-3 as a replacement for the ASDE-2 systems in use at 13 airports, as well as to install ASDE-3 at additional locations. The new equipment would provide clearer outlines of runways and taxiways while at the same time suppressing radar returns from buildings and rainfall. In April 1977, FAA had ordered display enhancement units for the ASDE-2 as an interim measure.
FAA ordered the ASDE-3 engineering model a few months after a ground collision in the Canary Islands caused 583 deaths (see March 27, 1977).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19270704: The Lockheed Vega first flew. The single-engine, high-wing monoplane seating up to six passengers marked an important step toward the low-drag designs with which U.S. manufacturers were to revolutionize airliners in the 1930s. The Vega went into passenger service on September 17, 1928, with International Airlines.
19820704: Following a ten-month interagency review, President Reagan issued a decision directive stating that expansion of U.S. private sector involvement in civil space activities was a national goal.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260703: A congressional joint resolution authorized the President to detail officers of the Army Air Corps to the Commerce Department to help in promoting civil aviation, provided the details did not exceed one year.
19450703: CAA created the new position of private pilot examiner to meet the anticipated flood of postwar demands for private pilot examinations.
19680703: PATCO president Michael J. Rock announced “Operation Air Safety,” which he described as a campaign among PATCO members to maintain FAA-prescribed separation standards between aircraft.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260702: A drop of tree seeds over a burned area in Hawaii on this date was the first recorded instance of reforesting by airplane.
19320702: Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. presidential candidate to fly when he chartered a Ford Trimotor from Albany to Chicago to address the Democratic National Convention. (See January 14, 1943.)
19370702: A Lockheed Electra 10E carrying navigator Fred J. Noonan and famed pilot Amelia Earhart was reported overdue at Howland Island in the Pacific, a stop on an eastward trip planned as the first flight to follow an equatorial path around the globe. A massive search failed to locate the aircraft, and theories as to its fate abound.
19810702: PATCO’s nine-member executive board recommended unanimously that the union’s members reject the tentative contract agreed to on June 22 by PATCO President Robert Poli and Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19270701: Frank Gates Gardner of Norfolk, Va., received the first Federal aircraft mechanic license.
19270701: The Secretary of Commerce appointed Clarence M. Young as Director of Aeronautics to administer the Aeronautics Branch under the general supervision of the Assistant Secretary for Aeronautics. A lawyer from Des Moines, Iowa, Young had served as a pilot on the Italian front in World War I and was later active in civil aeronautics. (See October 1, 1929.)
19270701: The transcontinental airway was transferred to the Department of Commerce from the Post Office Department. Extending from New York to San Francisco, the airway was 2,612 miles long, with 2,041 miles lighted (see January 29, 1929). Its facilities included 92 intermediate landing fields, 101 electric beacons, and 417 acetylene beacons. Also included were 17 radio stations (see March 1, 1960). Personnel involved in the transfer included 45 radio operators, 14 maintenance mechanics, and 84 caretakers.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19270630: The Aeronautics Branch issued Transport License No. 199 to Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie, probably the first woman to obtain a pilot license from a civilian agency of the U.S. government. (Other American women had previously received pilot licenses from the Joint Army and Navy Board on Aeronautic Cognizance, which issued civilian flying licenses during 1918-19, as well as from organizations such as the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.) The Aeronautics Branch also issued one of the early aircraft and engine mechanic’s licenses to Omlie.
19270630: The Aeronautics Branch announced that its first airways strip map was available for purchase: Moline, Ill., to Kansas City, Mo.
19280630: During the quarter that ended on this date, the Commerce Department’s Aeronautics Branch established a five-member Aircraft Accident Board

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19270629: Army lieutenants A. F. Hegenberger and L. J. Maitland made the first nonstop flight between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii, taking off from Oakland, Calif., in a Fokker three-engine monoplane.
19450629: CAA announced that it was conducting extensive tests of six different types of airport approach lighting systems under development at its Experimental Station at the Indianapolis Municipal Airport.
19460629: The Douglas DC-6 made its first flight, and CAA certificated the plane nine months later.