U.S. Department Of Transportation Federal Aviation: Fill & Download for Free

US airlines are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation:Federal Aviation AdministrationU.S. Department of Transportation Expands Airline Passenger Protections

As an architect who worked on the new World Trade Center Tower among other high rise towers, I believe I can answer your question.When we first set out to design the WTC replacement, the only design consideration was symbolism. We were not going to allow those bast**ds to get away with it. We were going to build prouder, bigger, taller and show them what we can do.There was no printed, agreed upon program about what to build. Just build the grandest tower possible. We went through many, many design schemes that the public never saw. After the destruction of the original WTC, after the dust cleared, we began our design charette under intense public scrutiny. EVERYONE had an opinion.At the time, we were inundated with email, blog discussions even a lawsuit against SOM partner David Childs. A number of us on the WTC team took time to reply to some of our online correspondents. In response to a one-line wisecrack about the design of the “Freedom Tower” I replied:“The term Freedom Tower, which you contemptuously place in quotes, is not the term in use on this project. The phrase was coined not by the architect or client, but by New York governor Pataki, and repeated in the press so often it became the popular name of the project. The name we use is Tower One.Over the past three years, I have posted quite a few responses to WTC issues on the AUGI Revit site. You are welcome to look them up there.Your one sentence remark betrays a very narrow understanding of the issues surrounding this difficult project. I challenge you to create a design. Once you have, you will be required to submit it for approval to:Daniel LiebeskindGeorge Patakithe NYC police departmentthe NYC fire departmentthe NYC building departmentthe NYC zoning departmentthe Port Authority of NY and NJthe US Homeland security officethe Federal Aviation Authoritythe NYC broadcaster's committeethe survivor's committeethe popular pressthe professional pressthe environmental communitythe real estate communitywebsites such as this onebloggers in generalthe usual engineers (structural, MEP etc)the NYC traffic departmentthe NY state department of transportationthe ownereveryone with an axe to grindand, of course, David Childs.I'm sure I left many others out of this list. But, unless you get consensus from all of the above, your work of genius will not be accepted, let alone built. I firmly believe almost any architect faced with the above challenge would walk away from this project.”Now to answer the question. Note in my list of WTC stakeholders, written in 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration is included.Why?When buildings get tall, they become obstructions to aviation. All towers require a red aviation light, visible in the photo below:While we were developing the design, the WTC team was informed by the FAA that the lower limit of the Air Traffic Control System was 2000 feet. Any higher than that and our building would be a direct obstruction to aviation. Rather than challenge them in a messy legal procedure, we decided to use the symbolic height of 1776 feet, avoiding any conflict with the FAA while still invoking our goal of patriotic symbolism.A tower of 3000 feet in the US, though technically possible, will have to clear a number of hurdles, not the least of which is a bunch of regulatory agencies such as the FAA. Nowadays, it may be possible to mount a successful legal challenge to the 2,000 foot limit, but a developer has to ask “is it worth the cost and trouble?”You do see much taller towers around the world where there are less restrictions on height than in the US. The Burj Khalifa Tower, located in the United Arab Emirates and also, like the WTC, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is 2,717 feet tall. Many of these “world’s tallest towers” are in small but wealthy countries like Kuwait and the UAE. They are built as a matter of national prestige. Most of them use US architects who, frustrated by regulations at home, get to realize their dreams of reaching for the skies elsewhere.

Living in a society means accepting that rules are necessary for that society to function. Those rules are there to promote the safety of the society members and to promote the goals of that society. Getting to and from space requires massive amounts of energy, meaning that if something goes wrong, people on Earth are endangered. Irresponsibly operating in Earth orbit endangers responsible and beneficial space operations such as the satellites that predict hurricanes and allow worldwide communication. Irresponsibly going to other celestial bodies threatens the integrity of those bodies. The world has decided that we need to have some rules about these activities to be responsible.The United Nations adopted a treaty governing activities in space in 1967. Article VI of that treaty states:States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty. The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty. When activities are carried on in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, by an international organization, responsibility for compliance with this Treaty shall be borne both by the international organization and by the States Parties to the Treaty participating in such organization.It therefore is the legal responsibility of the American government to authorize and supervise launches, returns, operations in space and operations on the Moon conducted by American citizens or companies and/or initiating within the United States.51 U.S. Code § 50904 defines how that responsibility is fulfilled in the United States. Various governmental entities including the State Department and Department of Transportation are involved. Licensing operations within Earth’s atmosphere (launch and reentry) is the responsibility of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). That includes a payload review and determination per 14 CFR §415 that the payload presents no issues affecting public health and safety, safety of property, national security and/or foreign policy interests, or international obligations.