MOSAIC Expected In 2025
The Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) final rule likely won’t be enacted until sometime in 2025. The comment period closed for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the expansion of specifications for Light Sport aircraft in January and at the time hopes were high that the final rule would be ready for AirVenture 2024 in July. EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski said getting the complex rulemaking in place in that amount of time “would have been an impressive stretch” in ideal circumstances but it was further delayed by the need to reopen the comment period on a technical issue in February. The feeling now is that the final rule will be presented at either Sun ’n Fun or AirVenture in 2025.
PAFI Unleaded Fuel Ready In 2025
The End Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) consortium says the lone contender for the Congressionally-mandated Piston Aviation Fuel Initiative (PAFI) is projected to have a viable unleaded high-octane fuel with an FAA “fleet approval” before the end of 2025. The organization said a fuel developed by Lyondell/Basell and VP Racing is undergoing full static engine and flight tests and is so far performing as expected, but it may not be entirely compatible with a small number of piston engines. Ninety-one percent of piston engines on the FAA registry are made by Lycoming, Continental, and Rotax and the new fuel will be fine for them, but there are 143 manufacturers in the remaining nine percent and some may need modifications to their engines or operating procedures.
Safety Management Systems Expanded
The FAA expanded the requirement for safety management systems (SMS) to most charter and air-tour operators and to many aviation manufacturers. There are four major components in an SMS: safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion. Formalizing the company’s attitude toward, and implementation of, safety protocols, will help them recognize and address safety issues before they become crises. “SMS provides a means for a structured, repeatable, systematic approach to proactively identify hazards and manage safety risk,” the FAA said.
AI Taught To Dogfight
Human has faced off against robot in a series of 21 dogfights over the California high desert and the Air Force says the aerial battles “broke one of the most significant barriers in combat aviation.” The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force’s Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base modified a testbed F-16 known as the X-62A VISTA with computers and control systems, and machine learning equipment used the knowledge gained in each successive dogfight to presumably get better. DARPA isn’t releasing the results of the dogfights perhaps because that’s not the real point of the project. “Dogfighting was the problem to solve so we could start testing autonomous artificial intelligence systems in the air,” said Bill Gray, head of the Test Pilot School. “Every lesson we’re learning applies to every task you could give to an autonomous system.”
Boom Set To Boom
Boom Supersonic has become the first civilian company to be granted an FAA special flight authorization to break the sound barrier. The agency has granted the start-up permission to conduct up to 20 supersonic flights in its testbed XB-1 over the next year in the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor near Mojave, California. The XB-1 is a scaled prototype of the Overture airliner that Boom hopes will one day carry up to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7 with a muted sonic boom that won’t bother people on the ground. The test aircraft will fly a series of subsonic flights before going supersonic and gradually increasing the speed of supersonic flights.
NOTAMs
Van’s Aircraft confident it will emerge from bankruptcy a profitable company … The Marine Corps Aviator of the Year is a drone pilot … A Boeing whistleblower called for grounding the fleet of 787s … NTSB urges better prop inspections after several failures … A Lear 36A established a westward circumnavigation record … NetJets pilots approved a new contract after bitter dispute … Both airworthy B-29s will fly at AirVenture … Find breaking news in general aviation at AVweb.com.
