New Standards for Light-Sport Airplanes, Gliders, Powered Lift, and Gyroplanes Go Into Effect Today

One year after the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) rule was announced at AirVenture, the new standards for light-sport airplanes — plus gliders, powered lift, and gyroplanes — go into effect today. Established by consensus, the standards were developed by the American Society of Testing and Materials International (ASTM) F-37 Committee over the past year and accepted by the FAA last week. The standards are codified under a new Part 22, of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

The F-37 Committee is composed of 400 domestic and international members, including manufacturers, technology companies, pilots, and civil aviation authorities like the FAA, EASA (Europe), and ANAC (Brazil). A key advantage for developing standards via the committee process is that it does not require new FAA rulemaking, enabling faster innovation and safety improvements.

“EAA is very pleased that these new standards are in place,” said EAA Vice President for Advocacy and Safety Sean Elliott. “We’ve been actively involved in the development of MOSAIC and the ASTM standards on behalf of our members. These are very important efforts to modernize general aviation and take it into the future.”

Adam Morrison, CEO of Streamline Designs and vice chairman of the F-37 Committee, characterized the standards as “much more flexible and much more accommodating to new types of aircraft as well as new technologies. It’s very exciting because it’s going to really unlock the market for really capable aircraft that can do a lot more than they could before,” he said.

“The goal of the work of the F-37 Committee was to give the industry, the pilots, and all of us new and innovative aircraft that we can fly that also adds more fun and safety,” said Bill Snodgrass with Colorado Sport Pilot and a committee member. “It’s been exciting and rewarding to see the new Part 22 rule go into effect.”

The F-37 Committee continues its work, as there are still standards to develop, and for the FAA to accept, for helicopter, multicopter, lighter-than-air, weight-shift-control and powered parachute. 

One company participating in the F-37 Committee involved in the development of the new standards was Air EV, represented by Shirry Knitel Manor, who joined four years ago. “When I started out working with the committee, I was the only powered lift manufacturer,” she said. “My company’s interest in this was really to try and see if there’s a way to get small personal powered lift into MOSAIC. It was crucial that I was there because we want to have the perspective of, this aircraft that takes off like a helicopter, but also flies like an airplane, has batteries for fuel and electric engines.” Asked when her company would have a powered lift product on the market, Shirry said they don’t actually have a date, but are exhibiting a model at AirVenture, which is scheduled to fly later this year.

Van’s Aircraft believes they might have the first ever aircraft, an RV-12iS, to be given an airworthiness certificate under the new standards. Once that occurs, the aircraft will be designated as an RV-12M. The DAR inspection has already been completed, according to Rian Johnson, the company’s chief engineer, who also currently serves as the F-37 Committee chairman.