Avionics News August 2020 - 41

believe Hyundai has the potential to
build Uber Air vehicles at rates unseen
in the current aerospace industry,
producing high-quality, reliable
aircraft at high volumes to drive down
passenger costs per trip."
Hyundai and Uber Elevate have
worked together to develop a personal
air vehicle model S-A1, an eVTOL
aircraft for aerial ridesharing purposes.
The S-A1 is all electric with multiple,
small rotors and propellers around
the airframe to avoid a single point of
failure. The four-passenger aircraft will
be piloted initially and then become
autonomous. Recharging will take five to
seven minutes. Hyundai, established in
1967, has built 4.5 million vehicles and
employs 110,000 workers.
These types of commitments by major
automobile manufactures to the air taxi
segment suggest the revolution everyone
is talking about will actually happen.
"This is going to change our world,
and it is going to happen faster than
people realize," Bunce said. He added
that the investments being made should
give people confidence that this novel
technology is real and air taxi services
are going to happen.
GAMA also stressed the importance
of the general aviation industry
explaining to legislators on Capitol
Hill why the FAA needs to continue
to delegate some aspects of aircraft
certification.
Bunce said that without this
delegation, new product development
cycles would take longer and slow down
safety improvements. The association
created a simple flow chart on how
aircraft certification works so that
government affairs representatives can
explain to members of Congress why
delegation is so important to success.
The chart shows how the FAA is
involved in every step of the process. If
work is not delegated to industry experts,
general aviation manufacturers will not
be able to refresh products and make
them safer.
Longstanding aircraft manufacturers

are part of the organization designation
authorization program, which means the
FAA can use these companies' in-house
experts.
This frees up resources for the FAA
to work with new-entrant manufacturers
trying to develop novel aircraft such as air
taxis. "Delegation is vital," Bunce said.
During a panel discussion, Ron Draper,
president and CEO of Textron Aviation
Inc., said his company completed the
certification of a super midsize Part 25
jet last year in a process with the FAA
that took 4 ½ years. It was the most
rigorous process the company has ever
gone through with the agency, but it
also included delegation. "Critics who
are outside the industry and point to
delegation as a problem really don't
understand the whole certification
process," he said. "It is not really a
delegation. The entire process is managed
and controlled by the FAA."
Draper noted the FAA has about
50 people working in its Wichita

Aircraft Certification Office, and while
he would like them to be working
on Textron aircraft every day, that is
not possible. But these government
workers provide approval of everything
from the certification plan to agreement
on the certification standards from the
start all the way through the process
"to ensure we're meeting certification
on every individual system from the
structure to every mechanical system
on the airplane," Draper said. He
added that maybe it is the fourth time
the same hydraulic system with no
changes has been reviewed. So one of
the 200 ODA representatives at Textron
can meet with the FAA and prove the
product meets standards.
Industry product development
"would grind to a halt" without
delegation, Draper added. Of course,
improvements can always be made to
the certification process, but throwing
out the whole system and starting over
would be a big mistake. q

P R O G R A M

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