Little orphan aircraft. For fans of aircraft manufactured by now-defunct companies, like this beautiful Swift, the efforts to maintain these so-called orphan aircraft often depend on the strength of type clubs to keep ‘em airworthy and flying. Photo by Dave Higdon

A provision in the proposed House and Senate FAA reauthorization bills could open up access to type certificate engineering data for owners and restorers of some "orphaned" aging aircraft. The provision is a direct result of dialog between the FAA and the general aviation community, including EAA, the Vintage Aircraft Association, and aircraft-specific type clubs.

The provision, included in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, would allow the FAA to release to the public engineering data from original or supplemental type certificates, only if:

• the type certificate has been inactive (no aircraft or parts manufactured under the type certificate) for at least three years;

• the FAA cannot locate the type certificate’s owner of record or his or her heirs, after making a reasonable attempt ("due diligence"); and

• the FAA administrator determines that releasing the data would enhance aviation safety.

H.G. Frautschy, executive director of the EAA’s Vintage Aircraft Association and editor of Vintage Airplane magazine, told AirVenture Today he is "very confident" the "orphaned aircraft provision" will become law as part of the FAA reauthorization.

Aging type-certificated aircraft represent a growing share of the general aviation fleet. By 2020, the average single-engine aircraft will be 50 years old. And the older they get, the more problems they present for owners and restorers.

When a certificated, factory-built aircraft is first designed and built, the manufacturer submits comprehensive engineering data to the FAA, which issues a type certificate—one of the documents allowing the manufacturer to build and sell that airplane. By law, type certificated aircraft must be maintained in conformity with their original type certificates; replacement parts for the airplane must be equal to or better than the original parts—even if those parts and the engineering data to which they must conform are 50 or more years old.

Restorers of antique, classic, and contemporary aircraft need access to original engineering data in order to fabricate aircraft components—replacement parts that are consistent to the airplane’s original type certificate.

Without access to the data, a restorer has few options and all of them are enormously complicated and expensive. The absence of original engineering data can bring a restoration project to a dead stop.

Unfortunately under current law, the engineering data accompanying a type certificate is proprietary "intellectual property" belonging to the original manufacturer or its heirs. Currently the FAA is prohibited from releasing that data, even though the data is in the FAA’s possession and even if the legal owner cannot be found.

Even with no legal owner in existence, current intellectual property law still prohibits the FAA from releasing the data to aircraft owners, restorers, and repairmen.

FAA officials have repeatedly said that they wanted to "do the right thing" and find a way to release the data. The orphaned aircraft provision in the House and Senate FAA reauthorization bills would accomplish that. The FAA would be allowed to release data from type certificates that had been inactive for at least three years and for which no owners or heirs can be found.

"This is a clear case in which the FAA has listened to the aviation community," said John Hickey, FAA director of aircraft certification. "We now have two bills [Senate and House] that do what we want," and, he added, the FAA will work hard to get the orphaned aircraft provision into the law.

Earl Lawrence, EAA vice president of industry and regulatory affairs, emphasized that this legislative effort by the FAA was a direct result of discussions between FAA officials and the aviation community at previous AirVentures and at an annual Winter 2007 EAA/FAA Summit meeting held at EAA headquarters in Oshkosh.

The remarks by Frautschy, Hickey, and Lawrence came Wednesday afternoon during an annual meeting on "Type Club and Aging Aircraft Issues" attended by about 35 people—FAA officials, type club officers, and members of the aviation industry.