New draft regulations published on Wednesday by the European Aviation Safety Agency raised hopes among industry advocates that it will become easier and faster to certify new airplanes and other aviation products. “These new rules will shift the methods of design compliance from an outdated, prescriptive system into standards that are continually evolved by the world’s aviation experts,” said Ed Smith, GAMA senior vice president of international and environmental affairs. At Aero Friedrichshafen, GAMA’s European expert, Greg Bowles, told AVweb the new rules will “bring in a new era of certification for light airplanes.” The EASA effort is working in coordination with regulators in the U.S., Canada, China and around the world, he said.
“The goal is to have one international, harmonized set of rules,” Bowles said. “Safety would be the goal.” He hopes to see final rules in place and real impacts on the aviation world within the next couple of years. “We are looking at a sea change of what airplanes might look like in the future,” he said. The rules will shift from a regulation that’s 170 pages long to one that’s 19 pages, and will work in concert with industry ASTM standards that will be able to accommodate new technology and keep pace with innovation. In a news release,GAMA senior vice president of international affairs Ed Smith also welcomed the new EASA proposal. EASA has indicated this new set of rules will be in place by mid-2016, according to GAMA.“As a result of these changes, we are on the cusp of a new era, where product development is limited only by the pace of technological innovation,” said Smith. The advance proposal (PDF) is open for public comment until May 27.
Click here to listen to our podcast interview with Bowles at Aero.
