FAA Certification
Type Certificates (TC) & Supplemental Type Certificates (STC)
Whether you are pursuing a Type Certificate (TC), Supplemental Type Certificate (STC), or amending one of those, properly navigating the FAA process is critical to your success. Missteps are very costly in both time and money and could possibly derail your project. Each of our Designated Engineering Representatives (DER) and Airworthiness Representatives (DAR) have decades of success helping clients obtain TCs and STCs. We understand the process and we have earned the trust and respect of the FAA and industry peers. Supported by our engineering staff, our comprehensive team of certification specialists will guide you through what may seem to be a daunting process. For us, it’s just another day at the office.
The Certification Process
This phase takes the idea from a “napkin drawing” to a physical thing. It may include engineering design and analysis, building of models or prototypes, wind-tunnel testing, ground or flight testing, etc. Once there is a clear idea of the project’s scope, work with the FAA can begin.
This planning step is key to your success. We will take a very detailed look at the certification requirements as they will apply to your project. We will customize a plan specific to your project, determine the regulations that will govern it, how we will meet the regulatory requirements, and how we will demonstrate to the FAA those requirements have been met. We will work with the FAA to establish a detailed roadmap for the project.
Once we have an agreed plan with the FAA, we are “off to the races”. We will work through the plan, often through parallel paths to reduce the overall schedule. In this phase, the engineers and DERs will finalize the design and engineering drawings, perform analyses and tests to substantiate the design, and conduct flight and ground tests on the aircraft.
Once the analyses and tests have been done, the reports will be written and FAA approved. Additional documents such as the Flight Manual Supplement, Instructions for Continued Airworthiness, Installation Instructions, etc. will be completed and FAA approved. At the end of this phase, the FAA will issue the TC or STC.
With the design approval (TCDS or STC) in-hand, often times there remain some things to be done. In this phase you will cement your perpetual working relationship with the FAA. Completion of ICAs, approval of Quality Assurance, and installation tracking systems are some common examples of post-certification work.