Category: TDiFH

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19370428: The Pan American Hong Kong Clipper, a Sikorsky S-42B flying boat, arrived at Hong Kong from Manila. Linking with the existing Pan Am route from San Francisco to Manila, this new service completed the first commercial airline route from the United States to a point close to the Asian mainland. (See October 21, 1936.)
19670428: The McDonnell Douglas Corporation came into being, the result of a merger between the Douglas Aircraft Company and the McDonnell Company. Douglas had been founded in 1920, McDonnell in 1939.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19530427: Frederick B. Lee was sworn in as CAA Administrator. He succeeded Charles F. Horne (see May 18, 1951), who resigned on March 6, 1953, because of the change in administration following President Eisenhower’s election. Lee received his A.B. degree from Stanford in 1928 and a law degree from Harvard in 1931. A naval aviator in World War II, he rose to the rank of commander, authored a manual for naval flight instructors, and supervised training in night fighters and torpedo units. He joined CAA in 1946 as Program Planning Officer, was made executive assistant to the Administrator in January 1947, and became Deputy Administrator the same year. He was still Deputy Administrator when nominated on March 11, 1953, to be Administrator. (See December 8, 1955.)
19590427: FAA announced a contract award for development of an air height surveillance radar (AHSR-1) to automatically provide air traffic controllers with information on aircraft altitudes up to a range of 50 nautical miles.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19630426: A split occurred within the Air Line Pilots Association, resulting in the formation of a separate union, the Allied Pilots Association, that gained the right to represent the pilots of American Airlines.
19710426: Intercom noted that Ruth M. Dennis would become the first woman to serve as chief of a Flight Service Station when she reported to the San Diego FSS during the week. Dennis had joined the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1944.
19740426: FAA began an in-depth inspection of the worldwide flight operations of Pan American World Airways following the April 22 crash of a Pan Am Boeing 707

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19660425: FAA established the National Airspace System Program Office, replacing the NAS Special Projects Office as a staff element under the Associate Administrator for Development. Headed by the Deputy Associate Administrator for Development, NASPO had responsibility for design, engineering, procurement, and installation–in addition to central programming, planning, and scheduling — of designated program elements of the air traffic control subsystem of the National Airspace System. (See May 18, 1970 and February 10, 1972.)
19690425: More than 800 aviation community representatives attended the first National Aviation System Planning Review Conference, held in Washington, D.C.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19460424: Winged Cargo, Inc. began the first glider commercial freight service, using a DC-3 to tow a Waco glider. The flight took off from Philadelphia and made stops at Miami, Havana, and San Juan.
19630424: President Kennedy approved a new statement of U.S. international air transport policy based on a report submitted earlier by an Interagency Steering Committee, chaired by the FAA Administrator (see September 15, 1961). A change in emphasis rather than in fundamental approach, the new statement stressed the necessity for keeping the environment of the international air transport industry as free as possible from restrictions, whether imposed by government or intercarrier agreement. U.S. policy was to seek an atmosphere of free enterprise that would benefit U.S. international air carriers and strengthen the entire system generally.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19670423: A project completed on this date made Washington National Airport’s main runway the first U.S. runway for commercial operations to be grooved. Developed by the British, runway grooving proved highly successful in reducing the tendency of landing aircraft to aquaplane on wet surfaces. The grooves at National were 1/8 inch wide, 1/8 inch deep, and cut at angles to the runway centerline with a 1- inch spacing. They carried water away in what amounted to thousands of tiny gutters. On May 24, 1968, FAA announced that Chicago Midway Airport would receive the first funding allocation for runway-grooving under the Federal-aid airport program. (See August 4, 1965 and July 13, 1983.)
19690423: FAA abolished the Kenai and Cordova (Alaska) Area Offices. The Anchorage and Juneau Area Offices absorbed the territory formerly served by these offices.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19570422: CAA commissioned the Spokane air route traffic control center.
19700422: The first annual Earth Day observance throughout the United States included protests indicating environmentalists’ rising opposition to the supersonic transport (SST) program. Concerns about the SST included such issues as sonic booms (see January 27, 1965) and the aircraft’s effect on the ozone layer of the earth’s upper atmosphere.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19280421: George Hubert Wilkins, an Australian explorer, and Carl Ben Eielson, an American pilot, made the first flight across the Arctic in a heavier-than-air craft, flying from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen, Norway, in a Lockheed Vega. Later in the year, Wilkins and Eielson flew the same Vega along the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, earning the distinction of being the first to operate an airplane in Antarctica.
19510421: The experimental Chase XC-123A, powered by four J47 turbojet engines, made its first flight. Designed as a troop and cargo transport for the Air Force, the XC-123A was fitted with four turbojet engines, installed as pairs in pods.
19580421: An Air Force jet fighter collided with a United Air Lines DC-7 near Las Vegas, Nev., killing both occupants of the fighter and all 47 persons aboard the airliner.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19630420: FAA commissioned the Albuquerque air traffic control center’s new building on this date. Other new center buildings commissioned during 1963 included: Washington at Leesburg, Va., on April 28 (FAA held formal dedication ceremonies on June 15) and Miami on September 2.
19780420: FAA proposed a new and much higher schedule of user fees for certificating airmen and for aircraft registrations. The agency based the proposal on an existing government policy, contained in a statute of 1952, that individuals or groups receiving special services from Federal agencies should pay their cost. In 1967, FAA had proposed a new fee schedule, but withdrew the proposal after the General Accounting Office pointed out that it did not entirely meet the costs of the services supplied. The April 1978 proposal encountered considerable opposition from within the aviation community, and Congress adopted legislation prohibiting FAA from implementing the proposed fees without prior congressional approval. FAA withdrew the proposal on May 8, 1981, stating that the data on which it was based were no longer valid.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.

19450419: Forty-one airlines from twenty-five nations created a voluntary organization, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), at Havana, Cuba, to prevent airlines from practicing unethical methods of setting rates and schedules. Other international airlines subsequently joined the association. IATA succeeded the International Air Traffic Association, which had been formed at The Hague in 1919.
19580419: CAA commissioned the Phoenix air route traffic control center.