27 September 2007
FR Doc E7-19053
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

The Bell Augusta BA609 tiltrotor is a smaller civilian version of the military’s V-22 tiltrotor. The notice requests comment on proposed standards for certifying the BA609. The tiltrotor is designed to take off and land like a helicopter, rotate its engines, and cruise like a conventional turboprop airplane. The FAA does not have standards for an aircraft with this unique design feature; the tiltrotor is referred to as a “special class” category of non-conventional aircraft. The FAA has put together 105 pages of airworthiness standards for which it is seeking comment.

26 September 2007
FR Doc E7-18931
FAA

Special Conditions, Boeing B787

The special conditions are intended to address the composite structure of the wings and fuselage, and their vulnerability to penetration by tire fragments, which can aggravate the threat of a fuel fire following a crash. As the notice says, the B787 has wing fuel tanks constructed of carbon fiber composite materials for which existing airworthiness standards, based on aluminum structure, do not apply:

8 August 2007
Docket No. FAA-2005-22840
FAA

This detailed 15-page rule becomes effective 9 October 2007. It culminates a proposed rule issued 4 November 2005 which generated extensive comment from the industry.. The final rule establishes a set of requirements for measuring airplane performance and handling characteristics in icing conditions and defines ice accretion in terms of size, shape, location and texture of ice encountered.