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This Day in FAA History: August 23rd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19370823: At the Army’s Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, the first wholly automatic landing was made by Capt. Carl J. Crane, the system’s inventor, Capt. George Holloman, pilot, and Mr. Raymond K. Stout, project engineer. The landing was made without intervention from the human pilot or from the ground.
19580823: President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (P.L. 85-726) into law. Treating comprehensively the Federal role in fostering and regulating civil aeronautics and air commerce, the new statute repealed the Air Commerce Act of 1926, the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, the Airways Modernization Act of 1957, and those portions of the various Presidential reorganization plans dealing with civil aviation.

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This Day in FAA History: August 22nd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19380822: The Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 became operative (see June 23, 1938). To implement the act, the Bureau of Air Commerce was transferred from the Department of Commerce, and the Bureau of Air Mail from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the Civil Aeronautics Authority.
19850822: One engine of a British Airtours charter 737 exploded on takeoff at Manchester, U.K., engulfing the aircraft in flame and killing 54 of the 137 persons aboard. Both British authorities and FAA ordered inspections of certain Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines used on some 727s, 737s, and DC-9s. On September 6, a Midwest Express DC-9 rolled out of control and crashed after one engine failed on takeoff from Milwaukee. All 31 persons aboard died.

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This Day in FAA History: August 21st

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19440821: CAA established a Ninth Region with headquarters at Honolulu. The new office had jurisdiction over the territory of Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean area not within the boundaries of the Eighth Regional Office in Alaska.
19590821: Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th State.
19720821: FAA placed its Office of Appraisal under the executive direction of the Associate Administrator for Administration. Previously, this office reported directly to the Administrator.

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This Day in FAA History: August 20th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19630820: The BAC 1-11 first flew. The plane received a British type certificate on April 6, 1965. On April 15, 1965, FAA typed certificated the twin-engine, short-range jetliner with a maximum passenger capacity of 79, the first airliner since the 1940s to be certificated for operation with a two-man cockpit crew. Braniff Airways pressed the aircraft into U.S. domestic service on April 25, 1965.
19850820: Trans World Airlines’ board of directors accepted a stock purchase offer from “corporate raider” Carl C. Icahn, leading to Icahn’s takeover of TWA before the end of 1985.
20010820: A final FAA rule, effective this date, lowered the overflight fees the agency charged carriers for air traffic and related services incurred by certain aircraft that transit U.S.-controlled airspace but neither take off from, nor land in, the United States.

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This Day in FAA History: August 19th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19390819: National Aviation Day occurred for the first time on a continuing basis. In 1937, President Roosevelt had designated May 28 as National Aviation Day for that year only (see that date). No day had been designation in 1938. In a proclamation dated July 25, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt applied this designation to August 19, 1939, and to August 19 of each succeeding year, in honor of Orville Wright’s birthdate. The proclamation was issued pursuant to Public Resolution No. 14, 76th Congress, approved May 11, 1939 (53 Stat. 739).
19400819: CAA presented Orville Wright honorary Pilot Certificate No. 1 during a National Aviation Day ceremony dedicating the Wright Memorial at Dayton, Ohio. (See April 6, 1927.)
19660819: A strike by the International Association of Machinists halted for 43 days the flight operations of Eastern, National, Northwest, TWA, and United. This was the longest and costliest strike in U.S. airline history to that date.

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This Day in FAA History: August 18th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19410818: President Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways would operate an air ferry service to fly aircraft, cargo, and passengers to the African continent in support of the Allied war effort. At the President’s direction, CAA on September 10 granted temporary authority to Pan American to operate the ferry service, flying from Miami, Fla., via Puerto Rico and Brazil, to Liberia and Nigeria. The rights would expire in 5 years, or 6 months after the Secretary of War notified CAA that the service was no longer required.
19420818: Letters from the Acting Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of Commerce formalized the decision that CAA would perform its war support functions in a civilian status.
19660818: FAA commissioned the nation’s 300th civilian airport traffic control tower at Hillsboro, Ore. Dedication ceremonies were held on August 28.

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This Day in FAA History: August 17th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19540817: Administrator Frederick B. Lee placed in effect a reorganization of CAA (see June 2, 1949). He established a position of Assistant Administrator for Operations in the Office of the Administrator to exercise direct supervision over the Office of Airports, Office of Federal Airways, Office of Aviation Safety, and the Washington National Airport. The administrative staff offices were placed under an Assistant Administrator for Administration, also responsible for supervising the Aeronautical Center.

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This Day in FAA History: August 16th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19650816: A series of three Boeing 727 accidents within three months began as a United Air Lines flight crashed into Lake Michigan for undetermined reasons, killing all 30 people aboard. On November 8, an American 727 crashed in Kentucky on approach to Greater Cincinnati Airport, killing 58 of the 62 people aboard. CAB later determined the probable cause was the crew’s failure to properly monitor the altimeters. On November 11, a United 727 crash landed at Salt Lake City. All 91 occupants survived the impact, but 43 died of the effects of postcrash flames and smoke (see September 20, 1967). CAB later cited the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to arrest an excessive descent rate. On November 12, FAA declared it could find no pattern in the mishaps and hence it would be premature to ground the 727, about 190 of which were in operation.
19850816: Transportation Secretary Dole released a report on FAA’s Flight Standards programs by the Safety Review Task Force that she had created in December 1983 to examine the safety programs of all the Department’s modal administrations.

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This Day in FAA History: August 15th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19330815: The Aeronautics Branch announced the abolition of solo pilot licenses and gave the solo flying privileges of that license to student pilots. The change was part of the Branch’s response to curtailed appropriations. (See September 15, 1933.)
The Aeronautics Branch also announced that it now required airlines to make detailed reports of all forced landings experienced on interstate scheduled passenger flights. Previously airlines had been requested only to report the number of forced landings.
19350815: Pioneer aviator Wiley Post and humorist Will Rogers were killed when an aircraft piloted by Post — a hybrid, pontoon-equipped Lockheed Orion-Explorer — plunged into a lagoon on takeoff, 16 miles north of Point Barrow, Alaska.
19360815: Bureau of Air Commerce regulations governing instrument flight became effective. Under the new rules, all civil pilots desiring to fly intentionally by instruments over a civil airway were required to have an instrument rating and a Federally licensed aircraft equipped with two-way radio and approved instrument flying equipment.

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This Day in FAA History: August 14th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19350814: An amendment to the Air Mail Act of 1934 (see June 12, 1934) became law, permitting the Postmaster General to award air mail contracts for a three-year period. The amendment also authorized moderate increases in route mileage, which had been frozen at 25,000 miles in the 1934 act to prevent extension abuses.
19570814: August 14, 1957: President Eisenhower signed the Airways Modernization Act (Public Law 85-133). The act established the Airways Modernization Board charged with “the development and modernization of the national system of navigation and traffic control facilities to serve present and future needs of civil and military aviation.”