NASA Seeks Research & Development Sources for Airworthiness Certification Case Study for UAS

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) is soliciting information about potential sources for participation in a case study to draft a type certification basis for the airworthiness of an unmanned aircraft systems.

NASA/DFRC is seeking information from all interested parties for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the Airworthiness Certification Case Study for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Deadline for responses is March 25, 2012.

The case study is being conducted as part of NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System Project. The goal is to advance formation of the UAS certification process by developing a type certification basis for a UAS (including the aircraft, communication links, ground control elements, and other supporting equipment).

The case study would involve working with a team from NASA to identify all existing Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) that apply to the UAS, proposed exemptions from the regulations, and proposed special conditions. The case study would also evaluate the results to determine applicability to other UAS.

The case study requires detailed design information about a manufacturer’s UAS, sufficient to establish the type certification basis, as well as interaction with the manufacturer to understand the design and intended operational scenarios or use cases.

The case study would follow the practices used for establishing a type certification basis for a manned aircraft, but would benefit from leveraging existing work by the FAA on the theoretical applicability of the current body of regulations to UAS.

The process involves development of issue papers as per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Order 8110.112 as the means for accomplishing the steps in the type certification process.

The expectation is that the process of determining a proposed type certification basis for a UAS would help identify:

1. existing regulations that clearly apply to the proposed UAS
2. existing regulations that may need modification or UAS-specific interpretation to apply
3. existing regulations that do not apply and should be exempted, and
4. where special conditions may be needed to identify safety issues not addressed in the FARs or other guidance, or for novel or unusual design features specific to that UAS.

Documenting the rationale for all of these findings is an important part of the case study.

To read the full synopsis on the NASA site, click here.

Source: NASA