review of aviation facilities problems in 1955, William B. Harding was ap- pointed as a consultant to the director. Harding, in turn, solicited the help of a number of prominent individuals in aviation to form his committee. In late De- cember 1955, Harding submitted his report. Reporting that the need to improve air traffic management had already reached critical proportions, the group rec- ommended that an individual of national reputation, responsible directly to the president, be appointed to provide full-time, high-level leadership in develop- ing a program for solving the complex technical and organizational problems facing the government and the aviation industry.
Following approval of the Harding Committee recommendations, President Eisenhower appointed Edward P. Curtis as his special assistant for aviation fa- cilities planning. His assignment was to direct and coordinate a “long-range study of the nation’s requirements,” to develop “a comprehensive plan for meeting in the most effective and economical manner the needs disclosed by the study,” and “to formulate legislative, organizational, administrative, and budgetary recommendations to implement the comprehensive plan.”
In 1956, a Trans World Airlines Super Constellation and a United Airlines Dou- glas DC-7 collided in midair over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people (Fig. 3-
4). As a result of this high-profile accident, the public outcry for reform leading to a safer air traffic management system became louder and clearer. Further- more, the threat made visible by the collision of two relatively slow piston air- craft was projected to be far greater with the introduction of jet aircraft into the civil aviation system.
On May 10, 1957, Curtis submitted his report entitled “Aviation Facilities Planning” to the president. The report warned of “a crisis in the making” as a result of the inability of the current airspace management system to cope with the complex patterns of civil and military traffic that filled the sky. The growing congestion of airspace was inhibiting defense and retarding the process of air commerce. Con- cluding that many excellent plans for improving the nation’s aviation facilities had failed in the past to mature because of the inability of our governmental organi- zation to keep pace with aviation’s dynamic growth, Curtis recommended the es- tablishment of an independent Federal Aviation Agency “into which are consolidated all the essential management functions necessary to support the common needs of the military and civil aviation of the United States.” Until such a permanent organization could be created, Curtis recommended the creation of an Airways Modernization Board as an independent office responsible for de- veloping and consolidating the requirements for future systems of communica- tions, navigation, and traffic control needed to accommodate U.S. air traffic.
Congress was receptive to this recommendation and passed the Airways Mod- ernization Act of 1957 on August 14, 1957. The purpose of the act was “to provide for the development and modernization of the national system of
Figure 3-4. The wreckage of a United Airlines DC-7 after it collided with a TWA Constellation over the Grand Canyon in Arizona on June 30,
1956. All 128 people on both planes were killed. (Photo courtesy www.planecrashinfo.com)
navigation and traffic control facilities (many of which exist on the property of civil airports) to serve present and future needs of civil and military aviation.” The act further provided for its own expiration on June 30, 1960. Appointment of Elwood R. Quesada as chairman of the Airways Modernization Board was confirmed by the Senate on August 16, 1957.
The Federal Aviation Act of 1958
On May 20, 1958, a military jet trainer and a civilian transport plane collided over Brunswick, Maryland, killing 12, the third major air disaster within a