After World War II, as the pace of industry expansion accelerated and airliners became much more common in the sky, Congress felt it necessary to place all of the federal government’s regulatory authority in the hands of a single agency. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 transferred the regulatory functions of both the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to a new, independent agency—the Federal Aviation Agency. In addition—and this is a big one—Congress gave the new agency another mandate: to advance the expansion of the civil aviation industry. The legislation was summarized as follows:
An act to continue the Civil Aeronautics Board as an agency of the United States to create a Federal Aviation Agency, to provide for the regulation and promotion [emphasis added] of civil aviation in such a manner as to best foster its development and safety.1