Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280618: Wilmer Stultz piloted a pontoon-equipped Fokker from Newfoundland to Wales on the first nonstop transatlantic flight by a seaplane. He was accompanied by a mechanic and by Amelia Earhart, the first woman transatlantic air passenger.
19710618: FAA announced a joint program with the military services designed to minimize the number of military aircraft flying under visual flight rules (VFR). The purpose of the program was to enhance the efficiency of the common civil-military airspace system and reduce the midair-collision hazard by bringing military flights under the direct control of FAA’s air traffic control facilities.
Category: TDiFH
This Day in FAA History: June 17th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19290617: Delta Air Service made its first passenger flight, with a six-passenger Travel Air, from Dallas, Tex., to Monroe, La. As it broadened its passenger operations, the company (which originated as an aerial crop dusting operation, the Huff Daland Dusters) changed its name to Delta Air Corporation and then, in 1945, to Delta Air Lines. On May 1, 1953, Chicago and Southern Airlines merged into Delta.
19470617: Pan American Airways inaugurated round-the-world scheduled passenger service, exclusive of the continental United States, as a Lockheed Constellation took off from New York and flew eastward on a route that led to San Francisco. The gap in the circle between San Francisco and New York could not be closed because of a provision in Pan Am’s certificate excluding domestic service. (See January 14, 1958.)
19520617: The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a recommendation that, pending development of a more suitable form of speech, English should be used as a universal language in aeronautical radiotelephony and should be available for communications involving international air services.
This Day in FAA History: June 16th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19370616: Commercial passenger service was inaugurated reciprocally between New York and Bermuda by Pan American Airways, using the Sikorsky S.42B flying boat Bermuda Clipper, and by Imperial Airways, using the Short S.23 flying boat Cavalier. This was the first scheduled airplane service over a segment of the North Atlantic.
19410616: CAA officially opened Washington National Airport for full-time operations. By the end of the year, almost 300,000 passengers had enplaned or deplaned at the airport, and scheduled air carrier operations reached a high of 192 daily in the month of September. Spectator interest was very high, and by the first of December over 2,225,000 persons had visited the airport.
19480616: The International Aviation Facilities Act became law. It authorized the CAA Administrator to improve air navigation facilities abroad and to train foreign nationals to operate such facilities whenever it benefited U.S. air carriers.
This Day in FAA History: June 15th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19470615: President Harry S Truman appointed a Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety, headed by CAB Chairman James M. Landis. The action followed a series of three DC-4 airline accidents that claimed the unpredecented total of 145 lives between May 29 and June 13, 1947. On August 15, Landis suggested that the Civil Aeronautics Board immediately hold hearings on airline crew complement to determine whether a flight engineer was required on all four-engine air transports in scheduled domestic passenger service. Between October 6-8, CAB held such hearings, and as a result, in April, 1948, adopted the so-called 80,000- pound rule. Effective December 2, 1948, (subsequently extended to March 31, 1949), all airplanes certificated for a maximum takeoff weight of more than 80,000 pounds were required to carry an airman holding a flight engineer’s certificate. Airmen with a pilot’s or a mechanic’s background could qualify for the certificate.
This Day in FAA History: June 14th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19510614: A new Title XIII of the Civil Aeronautics Act authorized the Secretary of Commerce to provide war risk insurance to U.S. air carriers when such insurance could not be obtained commercially on reasonable terms and conditions. Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the war risk insurance program remained with the Secretary of Commerce rather than becoming a function of the new Federal Aviation Agency (FAA). In 1967, the program was transferred from Commerce to the new Secretary of Transportation, who delegated the function to FAA. Under the program, FAA maintained a premium standby insurance plan that would make aviation war risk insurance available at the outbreak of war to civil aircraft engaged in operations deemed in the national interest.
This Day in FAA History: June 13th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19680613: The Secretary of Transportation delegated responsibility for administering the aircraft loan guarantee program to the FAA Administrator. The Department of Transportation Act of 1966 had transferred final loan guarantee responsibility from the Secretary of Commerce to the Secretary of Transportation. Authority to guarantee loans under the act had lapsed in 1967, but was renewed in 1973 with changes that included an increase of the maximum limit per carrier to $30 million. (See October 15, 1962, and September 7, 1977.)
19790613: The following changes in the FAA Washington Headquarters organization became effective on this date:
*A new Office of Associate Administrator for Airports was established.
*The Office of Airport Programs and the position of Assistant Administrator for Airports Programs were abolished.
*The Office of Airport Standards and the Office of Airport Planning and Programming were established and placed under the executive direction of the Associate Administrator for Airports.
*Metropolitan Washington Airports were placed under the executive direction of the Associate Administrator for Airports.
19900613: FAA dedicated its first child care center to be built “from the ground up” in a ceremony at the Aeronautical Center.
This Day in FAA History: June 12th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19340612: The President signed the Air Mail Act of 1934 into law (see February 9, 1934). The principal provisions were
19470612: At the request of the Air Coordinating Committee, the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics established a special committee (SC-31) to study and develop recommendations for the safe control of expanding air traffic. This action followed acceptance by the ACC of an Air Transport Association report on the same problem. (See February 17, 1948.)
19630612: The Administrator announced the appointment of David D. Thomas to the new FAA position of Deputy Administrator for Programs.
This Day in FAA History: June 11th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260611: The Ford Trimotor made its first flight. The famous “Tin Goose” was a high-wing monoplane with all-metal construction and a corrugated skin. The original 4-AT model seated eight passengers, later increased to twelve, and the improved 5-AT seated up to thirteen passengers. The Trimotor became a workhorse for U.S. airlines and remained in production until 1933.
19280611: Friedrich Stamer made the first rocket-powered piloted flight, in a tailless glider, at Wasserkuppe, Germany. Takeoff was assisted by an elastic launching rope. The craft traveled approximately one mile.
19460611: The Administrative Procedure Act became law, prescribing more uniform and publicized procedures for executive agencies to use in rulemaking, adjudicatory proceedings, and similar administrative actions. Federal agencies engaged in rulemaking were required to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register, unless this would be “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.”.
This Day in FAA History: June 10th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19330610: President Roosevelt issued an order changing the designation and broadening the duties of the Commerce Department’s Assistant Secretary for Aeronautics, effective 61 days from this date. The position was given the simpler title of Assistant Secretary of Commerce and made responsible for bureaus dealing with surface transportation as well as air transportation. A second Assistant Secretary had charge of bureaus dealing with trade and industry.
On June 15, the position of Director of Aeronautics became head of the Aeronautics Branch.
This Day in FAA History: June 9th
Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19280609: Australian pilots Charles E. Kingsford-Smith and Charles T. P. Ulm, accompanied by a navigator and a radioman, both Americans, made the first transpacific crossing by air. They flew from Oakland, Calif., to Brisbane, Australia, with stopovers at Hawaii and the Fiji Islands, in a modified Fokker F.VII.
19460609: CAA regional offices, rather than Washington headquarters, became the approving authority for flying schools, repair stations, ground schools, mechanic schools, and parachute lofts. The increasing number of applications for CAA aircraft and airman certificates had made this further decentralization of CAA services necessary.
19650609: FAA conducted a one-day national symposium on aircraft noise in New York City.