More Efficient Certification Process On The Horizon

All four authorities are part of a Certification Management Team (CMT) established through a joint 2015 charter to manage technical, policy and bilateral certification, manufacturing, export and continued airworthiness issues. The groups intend to implement the CMT so that when a product gets certified in one country, such as by the FAA in the U.S., it won't be subject to the same redundant engineering and certification tests in other CMT countries.

The FAA and EASA, which handle the bulk of the world's certification and validation projects for aircraft components and systems, have also published a Validation Improvement Roadmap (VIR)---separate from the new CMT framework---to recognize each other's certificates and approvals. The objective is to reduce validation effort, time and costs by 20% percent by 2022.

Additionally, by December 2016, the two authorities would like to streamline approval, technical standards and policies so that certification basis of the certifying authority is acceptable to the validating authority with no additional technical conditions. This roadmap only applies to products originally being certified either in the U.S. and Europe, and destined for export to customers operating in these two airspace systems.

Also up for discussion are Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs), which would provide even more benefits for manufacturers (and pilots), as it would address avionics being more readily and easily accepted by EASA and FAA.

The VIR and CMT plans for avionics manufacturers are eagerly anticipated, as it would improve how quickly pilots could see and use new products and technologies.