Category: TDiFH

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19580902: The CAA Administrator and the Commander of the Air Force’s Air Defense Command announced the establishment of a program for joint use of 31 new high-power, long-range radar facilities and plans for such joint use of additional facilities in the future. Under the extensive joint-use program, each agency was to budget for special equipment or modifications to meet its particular requirements, with ADC providing security guards and CAA maintaining the primary radar and other facilities used in air traffic control. (See January 9, 1958, and May 1959.)
19600902: FAA Administrator Quesada approved a field reorganization of the Federal Aviation Agency in accordance with the recommendations of Project Straight-Line (see April 6- May 20, 1960), to be completed in phases by June 30, 1961. Intended to decentralize many regional responsibilities to a new and lower echelon, the area office, the reorganization would establish a “straight line” of command between the bureaus at FAA headquarters in Washington and the field facilities.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19270901: American Railway Express and major airlines began air cargo express operations. Referring to the importance of this event, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote that though it was “much less spectacular than the long transoceanic flights, the beginning of real commercial aviation is, from the practical point of view, the most worthy development of all.”
19290901: New regulations affecting transport pilots became effective, stating that a pilot “may operate any type licensed aircraft but shall not carry persons or property for hire in licensed aircraft other than those specified on his license.” A later amendment, effective February 8, 1930, required transport and limited commercial pilots carrying passengers to have special authority from the Department of Commerce.
19390901: Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. (See December 7, 1941.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19270831: The Post Office Department turned over operation of its last air mail route, New York to Chicago, to National Air Transport (see November 15, 1926). Private operators under contract to the Post Office Department now conducted the entire service, a system that promoted the growth of the airline industry.
19330831: The first practical variable-pitch propeller, developed by Frank W. Caldwell of Hamilton Standard Propeller Company in 1930, was introduced into airline service, on a Curtiss Condor biplane. The new propeller improved the propulsive efficiency of modern aircraft with highly supercharged engines, giving them more thrust than a fixed-pitch propeller when taking off and permitting adjustment to a more efficient setting for flight at different altitudes and speeds.
19400831: a Pennsylvania-Central Airlines DC-3 crashed into a ridge near Lovettsville, Va., killing all 25 persons aboard, including Sen. Ernest Lundeen (Farmer-Laborite, Minn.). The Civil Aeronautics Board cited the probable cause as disabling of the crew by a severe lightning discharge near the aircraft.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19560830: The Air Coordinating Committee approved a study panel’s recommendation that VOR and TACAN, the separate civil and military air navigation systems, be combined. VORTAC (an acronym used to describe a short-range navigation system, using the VOR directional component and the distance component of TACAN) would become a key element of the civil-military common system of air navigation and air traffic control. (See January 14, 1955, and September 16, 1985.)
In addition, the Office of Aviation Information was abolished and its duties were divided between the Office of General Services and a Press and Publications Officer reporting to the Deputy Administrator. The reorganization extended to the regional offices, where counterparts to Washington program offices were to be established wherever there was a clear cut program that required field execution.
19650830: CAB assumed responsibility for a factfinding investigation of nonfatal aircraft accidents involving air-taxi operators and other commercial operators of small aircraft.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290829: The Graf Zeppelin made the first round-the-world flight by a rigid airship, leaving from and returning to Lakehurst, N.J., in 21 days 7 hours 34 minutes. This was the second round-the-world flight; two U.S. Army Douglas World Cruisers had first performed the feat during April 6-September 28, 1924. (See June 23-July 1, 1931.)
19310829: Tests begun this day and continued through April 8, 1932, showed that transmission of weather maps over the teletypewriter circuits of the Federal Airways System was practicable. Using an experimental circuit, the Aeronautics Branch tested equipment and procedures by sending maps three times daily from compilers in Cleveland and Kansas City to facilities in New York, Washington, and Chicago.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19610828: FAA issued type and production certificates for the Lockheed Model 1329 JetStar, powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT12A-6 engines. The JetStar was the first four-engine turbojet executive-type transport designed and developed in the United States to be certificated.
19670828: FAA appointed an Associate Administrator for Plans. This new position was responsible for developing the agency’s long-range plans for meeting future demands for its services. (See March 16, 1962, and November 27, 1968.)
20130828: As part of a joint research effort with FAA, the Navy, and Army, NASA dropped part of a military helicopter from about 30 feet to test improved seat belts and seats at its Langley, VA, facility.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19780827: FAA issued a type certificate under FAR Part 23 for the twin-turboprop Bandeirante aircraft manufactured by Embraer of Brazil, thus clearing the way for export to the United States. The Bandeirante was one of several foreign airplane types expected to see service on expanding U.S. commuter airline routes. The airplane could carry up to 19 passengers, and was the only non-pressurized, non-STOL airliner of its size still in production.
19980827: The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the deaths of 29 people killed in a Comair commuter plane crash in a field near Detroit in the winter of 1997 to FAA’s failure to heed decades of information about the effect of icing on aircraft performance. NTSB also said that Comair and its pilots contributed to the crash, and that the crew must share some responsibility for operating in poor weather conditions at a speed too low to provide a margin of safety. (See January 9, 1997.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19740826: Charles A. Lindbergh died in Maui, Hawaii, at the age of 72. (See May 20-21, 1927)
19750826: The commissioning of the computerized radar data processing system (RDP) at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center marked the end of the final phase of the completion of NAS En Route Stage A, FAA’s program of automating and computerizing the nation’s en route air traffic control system, an effort covering more than a decade (see February 13, 1973). Miami was the last of the 20 ARTCCs to receive RDP capability.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19410825: President Roosevelt signed the First Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act carrying a budget item of $12,186,000 for CAA to construct, operate, and maintain airport traffic control towers. A procedure, worked out earlier in the year and incorporated into the Appropriation Bill, required the Secretaries of War and Navy to certify a list of airports as essential to national defense before CAA could assume control of the towers. According to a CAA-Army-Navy agreement, the CAA airport traffic controller had full charge of tower operations, except in event of military emergency. The initial appropriation provided funds for the control of 39 control towers, while additional congressional funding was required to cover any additional towers recommended by the Army and Navy for CAA control.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19830824: In United States v. The County of Westchester, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York struck down an all-night curfew instituted by Westchester County at its airport. Citing the Concorde case (see October 17, 1977), the court said that local airport proprietors were “vested only with the power to promulgate reasonable, nonarbitrary and non-discriminatory regulations that establish acceptable noise levels.” In instituting its curfew, however, Westchester County had failed to conduct any study to determine the location of noise-impacted areas or to quantify the level of noise from any source.