Airmen were required to be tested for aeronautical knowledge and required to have a physical completed to ensure their physical fitness. The federal government was required to build new airports, institute regulations that would address aircraft altitude separation, develop and maintain airways and navigational aids.
The Department of Commerce Aeronautical Division would be responsible for overseeing and implementing this Act. The regulations would be known as the Civil Air Regulations (CARS). Today the regulations are known as the FARMS (Federal Aviation Regulations).In May 1926, Congress passed the All Commerce Act, which gave the government responsibility for mastering all commerce, establishing airways and aids to air navigation, and making and enforcing safety rules. Under this act, the government supplied money for all navigation so that the routes would become safer to fly, day and night.
Management of the route system moved to the new Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce, which was established in August under the leadership of William Mac Crack en.By the early part of 1926, contract airmail carriers flew most of he airmail, but government airmail pilots in government airplanes still flew the transcontinental route connecting San Francisco, , Chicago and New York. This transcontinental line was divided into two segments in 1927. Boeing began contract service on the western sector, between Chicago and San Francisco, on July 1, 1927.
National Air Transport took over the eastern sector, between New York and Chicago, on September 1, 1927. Now, all airmail operations had shifted to private companies flying with their own pilots and aircraft.
