Originally Posted by
bwiadca
Actually there was. From the website you can see that it wasn't officially called curfew. However, that's what it was.
"In the early 1980s, louder aircraft operating at Reagan National prompted the FAA - the original airport operator - to impose nighttime noise restrictions between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. which became known as the DCA Nighttime Noise Rule. The DCA Nighttime Noise Rule is not an operational curfew at Reagan National."
Maybe the confusion is that (as you quoted above) there
was a nighttime restriction on loud aircraft. This was back in the day when 727's dominated at DCA. I remember when the "quiet" stage-3 MD-80s came out and were allowed to land at night. Hard to believe we ever considered the mad dogs to be "quiet"! Anyway, today all aircraft meet the noise restrictions so the rule is moot (if it even still exists).
Originally Posted by
bwiadca
When the curfew was in place, there was one gimmick that airlines came up with to avoid missing the 10pm cut off time. If the airline contacted the tower before 10pm they could still arrive, even when the flight landed after 10pm.
Airlines running late, still flying over Blue Ridge, would contact the tower at DCA to request landing clearance. As long as they've called before 10pm they were allowed to land.
Not sure where you heard this but it is most certainly "urban legend". Aircraft don't receive landing clearance until after they are on final approach (typically <15 miles out) and are handed off from the final approach controller to the tower. The tower does not issue landing clearance until the controller assures it is safe to do so (due to other traffic, airport/runway conditions, etc.) which would be impossible from such a distance.