Aviation Timeline

A basic timeline of some major events and developments in aviation, particularly those that apply to the development of air traffic control. From the early days, when WWI pilots carried radios into the cockpit to talk to the ground, through the days when the extent of air traffic control was a line of rotating beacons to help pilots navigate, to the time right before the development of Mode S, this timeline gives an interesting look at how things progressed.

• 1901 - First transatlantic radio transmission
  
  
• 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright take historic first 120-foot, 12 second flight at Kitty Hawk, NC
  
  
• 1914 - first scheduled air service in Florida. Airplane held one passenger, ran twice a day. Company folded within 4 months.
  
  
• World War I - first real widespread need for aviation. Demand soars, production increases. Pilots begin taking radios into planes to communicate with people on the ground.
  
  
• 1917 - Air mail (first large commercial use of aviation) begun as an experimental service, conducted jointly by Army and Post Office between Washington and New York.
  
  
• 1920's - Airlines use radio to transmit weather information to pilots so they can avoid storms.
  
  
• 1920 - first transcontinental air service completed. Airplanes still could not fly at night.
  
  
• 1921 - Army deployed rotating beacons in a line between Columbus and Dayton, OH. Beacons were visible to pilots and allowed them to fly that route at night.
  
  
• 1923 - Post Office takes over this guidance system, and constructed another line that soon extended coast-to-coast.
  
  
• 1925 - Contract Air Mail Act - moved airmail service to private sector, the beginning of the creation of a private US airline industry.
  
  
• 1925 - Calvin Coolidge appoints a board to recommend a national aviation policy. Key recommendation: government should set standards for civil aviation, outside of the military.
  
  
• 1926 - Air Commerce Act - authorized Secretary of Commerce to designate air routes, develop air navigation systems, license pilots and aircraft, and investigate accidents.
  
  
• 1927 - Charles Lindbergh's first transatlantic flight - navigation by dead reckoning.
  
  
• 1932 - Department of Commerce constructed 83 radio beacons as an aid to navigation during poor visibility. Radio beacons automatically transmitted directional beams that pilots can follow to their destination. Also deployed marker beacons to mark airports in poor visibility conditions.
  
  
• 1935 - First air traffic control tower established at the Newark International Airport in New Jersey.
  
  
• 1938 - Civil Aeronautics Act - creates the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) as centralized agency to preserve order in aviation industry. Air Safety Board created to regulate carriers on matters of safety.
  
  
• 1940 - Safety regulation transferred to CAA, which is renamed the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).
  
  
• World War II - great boom in demand for aviation. British working on early detection of enemy aircraft, developed radar. Americans devloped IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) to distinguish between enemy and Allied aircraft, installing transponders above Allied aircraft that would signal their identity to radar operators First move from navigation to surveillance for air traffic control.
  
  
• 1940 - British has line of radar receivers along east coast to detect German aircraft when they took off from the Continent.
  
  
• 1956 - Two aircraft collide over Grand Canyon, killing 128 people.
  
  
• 1958 - Federal Aviation Act - created Federal Aviation Agency, charged with establishing and running a broad air traffic control system to maintain safe separation of all commercial aircraft though all phases of flight. Also assumed jurisdiction over all other aviation safety matters. CAB retained jurisdiction over economic matters.
  
  
• 1967 - Department of Transportation formed, took over the FAA, renaming it the Federal Aviation Administration.
  
  
• 1968 - Department of Transportation forms the Air Traffic Control Advisory Committee.