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THE FIRST TEN YEARS:
SOME OBSERVATIONS OF FAA, 1958-1968

I. INTRODUCTION

On August 23, 1958, Congress enacted the Federal Aviation Act. The principal purpose of the 1958 legislation was the establishment of

"...a new federal agency with powers adequate to enable it to provide for the safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace by both civil and military operations." (House Report No. 2360, August 2, 1958).

The Federal Aviation Agency, now completing the tenth year of its existence, was charged by Congress with "the management of the national airspace," a responsibility flowing from the expressed concern of Congress, based in large part upon the incidence of midair collisions, that uniformly higher safety standards should be made applicable to all users of our Nation's airspace. See, for example, House Report No. 2927, 84th Congress, 2d Sess., entitled "Airspace Use Study," and House Report No. 1272, 85th Congress, 1st Sess., entitled "Air Transportation Development and Airspace Use Problems."

Before 1958, authority to regulate the use of our Nation's airspace was divided. In creating FAA, however, Congress combined in a single agency the total and independent responsibility to assure that all airspace users conformed to the same high standards of safety. Congress stated:

"Clearly an agency is needed now to develop a sound national policy regarding use of navigable airspace by all users--civil and military. This agency must combine under one independent administrative head functions in that field now exercised by the President, the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, and