December 09, 2022

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Sofema Aviation Services (SAS) www.sassofia.com considers the route to FAA certificate of UAS equipment.

Introduction – Certification for Advanced Operations Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

What is Airworthiness?

  • All aircraft flying in our National Air Space (NAS) must be reliable, controllable, and safe  no matter how small or large, or whether the crew is onboard the aircraft or piloting it remotely.
  • Aircraft type certification helps ensure that aircraft designs meet these objectives.

Airworthiness Criteria for Special Classes of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

  • The FAA is publishing proposed airworthiness criteria that will be used to issue type certificates for UAS as special classes of aircraft.
  • The type certification of UAS is a key enabler for more complex operations, including package delivery.

Each notice identifies the individual applicant’s proposed UAS design and contains the airworthiness criteria for type certification proposed by the FAA.

The airworthiness criteria are developed to provide a level of safety equivalent to that provided by existing airworthiness standards applicable to other categories of aircraft but that are not appropriate for this special class of UAS.

Regulatory Basis for this UAS Certification

  • The FAAs recently published a policy clarification to use the “special class” category under §21.17(b)to issue type certificates for certain UAS.

1.17 Designation of applicable regulations.

(b) For special classes of aircraft, including the engines and propellers installed thereon (e.g., gliders, airships, and other nonconventional aircraft), for which airworthiness standards have not been issued under this subchapter, the applicable requirements will be the portions of those other airworthiness requirements contained in Parts 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, and 35 found by the FAA to be appropriate for the aircraft and applicable to a specific type design, or such airworthiness criteria as the FAA may find provide an equivalent level of safety to those parts.

  • The FAA has developed a “durability and reliability” (D&R) process to establish criteria as an element of the proposed certification basis for these aircraft.
  • This special class process establishes a defined path to type certification of UAS, and is the first of its kind developed worldwide. Through the D&R process, applicants demonstrate that their UAS are reliable, controllable, and safe, and provide the FAA basic assurance that the aircraft will operate as intended.

UAS Airworthiness Criteria Federal Register Notices

Federal Register post date: October 5, 2022

Federal Register post date: March 28, 2022

Next Steps

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Airworthiness, FAA, Certification, SAS blogs, UAS, Airworthiness Certification, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle