At a glance:
- Landmark roadmap established between national aviation authorities from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
- It aims to ensure safety, foster collaboration, and promote technological innovation.
- It also aims to streamline the certification and validation process for new aircraft types across international boundaries.
Across much of the world, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft, including electric vertical take-off, are set to be certified in a unified and streamlined way in the future following a landmark roadmap established between national aviation authorities from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Roadmap for Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft Type Certification was released today and is available via the UK Civil Aviation Authority website.
It aims to ensure safety, foster collaboration, promote technological innovation, and streamline the certification and validation process for new aircraft types across international boundaries.
It was developed collaboratively by representatives from the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Transport Canada (TC), the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (NZ CAA), the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Sophie O’Sullivan, Director of Future of Flight at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:
“This roadmap is part of our work to enable new technology into our skies and support the growth of the UK aerospace industry.
“It marks a significant milestone in the evolution of bilateral partnerships to meet the challenges of emerging aviation technology. It allows us to share data, research and safety information while also collaborating and sharing our expertise. While for manufacturers and operators, it aims to reduce the certification burden once aircraft have received a type certificate and allow them faster entry to multiple countries through harmonised airworthiness standards.
“By working together, we can ensure that the introduction of AAM aircraft is both safe and efficient, paving the way for the future of urban mobility.”
Aircraft type certification is a process that ensures a particular type of aircraft meets all the necessary safety and airworthiness standards set by aviation regulatory authorities.
Currently, traditional aircraft are type-certified in the country of design using internationally harmonised airworthiness certification standards. Countries then validate the aircraft against these standards before the aircraft can be operated in other nations.
However, with new AAM aircraft types, there are differences in certification standards emerging across the world. The roadmap acknowledges these differences and provides a framework to converge and harmonise these standards to streamline validation and entry of AAM aircraft into multiple markets.
Notes to editors
- The roadmap was created through a working group established by the national aviation authorities (NAAs) in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, through its NAA Network. The network was established to foster co-operation, learning and sharing of best practices by working in partnership on common and emerging challenges in aviation and aerospace and is dedicated to advancing aviation safety and innovation through international cooperation and alignment of regulatory standards.
- The UK Civil Aviation Authority has adopted the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) SC-VTOL as the prescribed airworthiness standards for type certifying AAM.