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Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260811: William P. MacCracken, Jr., took office as the first Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics (see October 1, 1929). He thus became the first head of the Aeronautics Branch, created in the Department of Commerce by Secretary Herbert Hoover to carry out the Secretary’s responsibilities under the Air Commerce Act of 1926. MacCracken, who had assisted in drafting that act, brought to the position experience as a World War I Army pilot, as chairman of the American Bar Association’s committee on aviation law, and as general counsel of National Air Transport, a contract mail carrier he helped organize in 1925.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19610810: For the first time the Federal government employed armed guards on civilian planes. (See May 1, 1961.) The first such guards were border patrolmen from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. In March 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy swore in FAA’s first “peace officers,” as Special U.S. Deputy Marshals. Graduates of a special training course at the U.S. Border Patrol Academy, all of the men worked as safety inspectors for Flight Standards and only carried out their role as armed marshals on flights when specifically requested to do so by airline management or the FBI. (See February 21, 1968.)
19650810: San Francisco-Oakland Helicopter Airlines initiated the first scheduled air cushion vehicle (hovercraft) service in the United States between Oakland and San Francisco.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19740809: James E. Dow became FAA’s Deputy Administrator. The appointment was among the last official acts of President Nixon, who had nominated Dow on July 24.
A native of East Machias, Maine, Dow was a graduate of the University of Maine. He entered the Federal service in 1943 as an air traffic controller in CAA’s Central Region. After several promotions in the field, Dow transferred to CAA’s Washington headquarters in 1956, where he served successively as Assistant Chief of both the Systems Engineering and Systems Management Divisions, Chief of the Plans Division, and Director of the NAS Special Projects Office.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19460808: An amendment to the Civil Aeronautics Act facilitated the participation of the Weather Bureau in international meteorology and gave the Bureau the responsibility of acting as a clearinghouse for research in aeronautical meteorology. The Bureau was also charged with providing for the collection and dissemination of weather observations made by pilots in flight. (See September 15, 1950.)
19500808: To help CAA personnel keep pace with swift advances in aeronautical science, Congress enacted legislation allowing the Secretary of Commerce to detail agency personnel for advanced training at civilian or other institutions or at schools which the Secretary operated.
19500808: Following field tests, CAA consolidated airport traffic control towers and airway communications stations at 16 smaller airports in the continental United States.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19640807: Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution supporting intervention in the Vietnam conflict. U.S. involvement in the war had begun with the assignment of advisors to South Vietnam in the mid-1950s, and its scope increased greatly in the mid-1960s. The last U.S. troops left Vietnam in March 1973. (See Spring 1975.)
19670807: In a rule effective this date, FAA set equipment and procedural standards under with general aviation pilots operating properly equipped airplanes were authorized to land under Category II weather minimums–a 1,200-foot runway visibility range and a 100-foot decision height. (See October 2, 1964, and November 3, 1967.)
19680807: An FAA rule effective this date required deployment-assisting devices on parachutes for static-line jumps.

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19450806: The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, followed by a second on Nagasaki on August 9. These attacks, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan on August 8, led to Japan’s surrender on August 14 and the end of World War II. As a result of the war, a total of 1,961 men and 70 women, representing nearly 20 percent of CAA’s personnel, left the agency during 1939-45 to serve in the Armed Forces.
19540806: CAB announced the signing of an agreement with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark for the operation of an air route by U.S. and Scandinavian airlines between Los Angeles and Scandinavia via Greenland.
19640806: An FAA rule effective this date required the closing and locking of crew compartment doors of scheduled air carriers and other large commercial aircraft in flight to deter passengers from entering the flight deck either intentionally or inadvertently (see May 7, 1964).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19570805: The Civil Aeronautics Board adopted a rule requiring an approved Flight Data Recorder (FDR) aboard air carrier and commercial airplanes of more than 12,500 pounds maximum certificated takeoff weight, with compliance by July 15, 1958. The FDRs were to be capable of recording time, air speed, altitude, vertical acceleration, and heading. In adopting the rule, CAB stated that FDRs would be invaluable in investigating accidents and such incidents as extreme vertical accelerations. (At first, the rule applied only to aircraft certificated for operations above 25,000 feet, but this limitation was dropped in an amendment issued on July 12, 1960.)

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19650804: In a letter to Senator A. S. “Mike” Monroney (D-Okla.), FAA Administrator William F. McKee revealed an FAA decision not to incorporate emergency arresting systems for large air carrier aircraft into the National Airspace System.
19710804: Recognizing that noise was a major source of environmental pollution, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued guidelines for housing construction near high-noise areas, including airports. HUD hoped to discourage the construction of new dwelling units on sites that had, or were projected to have, an unacceptable noise exposure by withholding financial assistance for their development. For existing buildings located in a noisy environment, the Department encouraged soundproofing, provided a structure’s life was not substantially increased.
19770804: FAA Administrator Bond signed a policy paper reaffirming the age-60 rule on mandatory retirement of airline pilots (see March 15, 1960).

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19500803: Legislation enacted on this date provided criminal sanctions for knowing and willful display of false or misleading marks as to an aircraft’s nationality or registration.
19550803: President Eisenhower signed Public Law 211, making major changes in the Federal-aid airport program and removing the 1958 time limit prescribed by the original act, as amended in 1950. The changes established a four-year program which placed the total funding for fiscal 1956 at $62.5 million and provided $63 million for each of the fiscal years 1957-59. The law also made all types and sizes of airports eligible for aid, included development of airport buildings as eligible items,