Review - FAA Published Final Airworthiness Criteria for Hummingbird UA

Today the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a final airworthiness criteria (FAC) in the Federal Register (89 FR 2118-2125) for the Wing Aviation LLC Hummingbird unmanned aircraft (UA). The notice of proposed airworthiness criteria (NPAC) for this aircraft was published on February 8^th, 2023. In the preamble to today’s FAC discusses comments on cybersecurity issues submitted in response to the NPAC.

Effective Date

This final airworthiness criteria becomes effective on February 12^th, 2024.

Commentary

There is another interesting recommendation made in the ALFP comment on the NPAC:

“ALPA strongly urges the FAA to adopt the use of "uncrewed" terminology in all future discussions and written documents to promote the use of more appropriate and inclusive language in the aviation industry. By doing so, we can ensure that the language used accurately represents the nature of the technology being used and is respectful and inclusive to all members of the industry, regardless of gender or other characteristics.”

Unfortunately, this is not really within the purview of the FAA or DOT to change this terminology. Those definitions are generally set by Congress in the legislation establishing the US Code. The specific definitions that would apply in this case are established in 49 USC 44801. While the FAA could technically establish separate terminology that could included ‘uncrewed aircraft, keeping that language tied back to the authorizing legislation would get complicated and would upset any number of lawyers and judges.

I appreciate the intent of ALFP in making this comment, but it really should be directed at Congress.

 

For more details about the cybersecurity discussion in the document, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/faa-published-final-airworthiness - subscription required.