The History of Aviation Legislation

The first aviation fatality occurs on 17 September 1908. The accident results in injury to the Orville Wright and death of his passenger, Thomas Selfridge, a Signal Corps Lieutenant .

World War I begins in 1914 after the assassination

of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

On 22 August 1914, British Captain L.E.O. Charlton and Lieutenant V.H.N. Wadham proved the superiority of the airplane for reconnaissance.

1918 the Post Office established intercity Airmail routes with the help of the Army.

These regulations required all aircraft engaged in commerce to be licensed and marked with an identification number. Pilots of licensed aircraft were required to hold a licenses. Mechanics were required to secure mechanic license. Any owners, pilots or Mechanics Failing to apply as required faced a $500 fine.

The regulations also prescribed operational and air traffic safety rules.

A 1931 crash that killed all on board, including popular University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, elicited public calls for greater federal oversight of aviation safety

Four years later, a DC-2 crash killed U.S. Senator Bronson Cutting of New Mexico further highlighting the need for government oversight

The Civil Aeronautics Administration, returned to the Department of Commerce, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) retained responsibility for ATC, airman and aircraft certification, safety enforcement, and airway development. CAB responsibilities included safety rulemaking, accident investigation, and economic regulation of the airlines.

On August 19, 1940 the CAA presented Orville Wright honorary Pilot Certificate No. 1 during a National Aviation Day ceremony dedicating the Wright Memorial at Dayton, Ohio.

Dec 7, 1941: The Japanese attacked Hawaii and the Philippines

.

On May 8, 1946 the Bell Aircraft Corporation's Model 47 became the first helicopter to receive a CAA

airworthiness certificate, authorizing mass production.

The Vickers VC.1 Viking G-AJPH, first flew on 6 April 1948 powered by the Nene Jet engine.

Berlin blockade was officially lifted on May 12, 1949

On June 30, 1956, a Trans World Airlines Super Constellation and a United Air Lines DC-7 collided over the Grand Canyon, Arizona, killing all 128 occupants of the two airplanes.

With a single shot, the Soviet Union Turned the heads of the major nations in the direction of space race. On Oct. 4, 1957 they sent Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, into space. The Soviet Union's small satellite brought them into the technological spotlight and demonstrated their country was capabilities to the world.

In response to the terrorist attack on the United States the President and the Houses produced a comprehensive law in an unprecedented time frame. Out of the Patriot Act there has been an alarming amount of authority given to organizations like the Department of Homeland Defense and others.

I attempted in the creation of this presentation to demonstrate that the regulations affecting the aviation industry are based on laws passed as a reaction to events. Often those laws are created late, and the horses have run. As time passes the regulations affecting aviation continue to become more restrictive. Some of the regulations that come out of news laws fail to accomplish the intent of the law or actually make a positive difference in the world of aviation. To some degree aviation has been spared the worst of such problems because the people creating the regulations are in fact aviators or mechanics themselves.

The History of Aviation Legislation

References:

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/library/research/guides/aviationlaw.cfm

https://www.faa.gov/about/media/b-chron.pdf

http://www.faa.gov/about/history/brief_history/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government_role_in_civil_aviation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

http://www.space.com/17563-sputnik.html

President Roosevelt split the CAA

1940

The first Air Commerce Regulations

Dec 31, 1926

Regulations

Federal Aviation Act

1958

Civil Aeronautics Act

1938

Airways Modernization Act

Aug 14, 1957

The USA PATRIOT Act

October 26, 2001

Air Commerce Act

1925, 1926 & 1927

Laws

Homeland Security Act

November 25, 2002

Railroad owners complained that government-sponsored enterprise was cutting into their business. Congressman Clyde Kelly, chairman of the House Post Office Committee, sponsored H.R. 7064: the Contract Air Mail Bill. The Bill became the Air Mail Act of 1925 or the Kelly Act.

The act authorized the postmaster general to: contract for domestic airmail service, set airmail rates and the level of cash subsidies to be paid to companies for carrying mail.

The goal of the act was, as Kelly explained, to permit “... the expansion of the air mail service without burden upon the taxpayers….”

Many believe the government effectively created the commercial aviation industry through this act.

President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Civil Aeronautics Act in 1938, to ensure a federal focus on aviation safety.

The legislation established:

• The independent Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA), empowered it to regulate airline fares and determine the routes individual carriers served
• Air Safety Board to conduct accident investigations and recommend ways of preventing accidents.

The act to establish the Airways Modernization Board. The Board was established to modernize the national system the needs of aviation.

The AMB was to select: systems, procedures, and devices.

The act included an expiration of June 30, 1960.

The act provided a comprehensive Federal role 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

various Presidential reorganization plans dealing with

civil aviation. The act assigned the functions exercised under the old laws, to two independent agencies--the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), freed of ties with the Department of Commerce.

1900

1950

1975

1925

2000

ISS Launched in 1998

Sputnic and the Space Race

First Turbo Jet Airliner

Henry Ford opens a private air freight service

April 3, 1925

Wright Brothers First Flight

December 17, 1903

9/11

Now the largest artificial body in orbit, it can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles as well as Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets.

The Wright brothers and their chief mechanic, Charles Taylor, built the first successful airplane and the age of powered flight began on December 17, 1903, when Orville made his twelve-second sustained flight.

To me the ISS is an icon of what international cooperation can do, but the impending threats in Europe and the chilling effect of Islamic extremism around the world make.

The automaker started the first commercial operation, with service between Detroit and Chicago.

Terrorists seized commercial aircraft and changed aviation forever.

Events

"January 16, 1930: Frank Whittle, a British Royal Air Force officer and engineer, received a patent for his design of a turbojet aircraft engine"

.

Jan 31, 1928: The Aeronautics Branch's Domestic Air News

reported an early instance of airplane noise nuisance

.