SAE Update - February 2023 - 23

TECH FOCUS:
AerospAce
important. Most of the regulating industries align
themselves with a standard they believe is sufficient
for demonstrating the level of rigor (reliability) for the
safety-critical systems. So, find out what the industry
regulator you will be working with accepts.
For airborne software and hardware, the civil
authority is the FAA in the U.S. and EASA in the E.U.
Other countries have their own regulating body for
airborne civil aircraft. In the U.S., civil avionics related
to safety-critical systems are certified under the
regulatory laws published in the Code of Federal
regulations (CFRs). EASA in the E.U. has similar
regulations called certification standards (CS).
Both EASA and the FAA acknowledge industry
standards that they consider acceptable means of
compliance (MOC) via an Advisory Circular document.
AC20-152A/AMC20-152A is currently the document
that acknowledges the RTCA standard DO-254 as a
MOC for airborne hardware aspects of certification.
AC/AMC20-115D acknowledges RTCA standard DO178C
as a MOC for airborne software aspects of
certification. Similar ACs/AMCs acknowledge
ARP4754A/ARP4761, DO-160G, for environmental
testing and systems and safety development.
There are alternative MOC accepted as well, but they
require closer interactions and support from the
regulating body. This can increase risk, schedule, and
costs. It is very important in the civil aviation
certification program to read the AC/AMC first before
jumping in reading the industry standard. The AC/AMC
provides tailoring and is the regulator's opinion on how
to use the industry standard for regulatory approval.
To Learn more about the industry standards and use
for safety-critical systems for airborne hardware and
software, attend AeroTech 2023 and see my
presentation. Or, reach out to Tammy@patmos-eng.
com for support. n
UPDATE
S-18 Committee
members on the move
The " Move with SAE Mobilus "
program recently featured three
members of the SAE S-18 Aircraft
and System Development and
Safety Assessment Committee to
talk about, among other things,
planned revisions of ARP4754A/
ARP4761. The January 18
interview featured with Bob
Voros, System Safety Manager at
Merlin Labs; Andrew Wallington,
Boeing Enterprise Safety &
Mission Assurance; and Cory
Laflin, Engineering Process
Improvement Specialist at
Textron Aviation.
About the Author
Tammy Reeve, Founder & CEO of Patmos
Engineering Services, Inc. and
Airworthiness Certification Services LLCs,
is an independent FAA DER and a software
and digital hardware engineer who works
with companies in safety-critical
development, both commercial and
military, in meeting design and compliance
requirements for the government
regulators. She is an active member of SAE
and serves on several committees,
including AeroTech, WG34 Machine
Learning and AI, S-18UAS, RTCA Forum for
Aeronautical Software RTCA WG-117 SG-1
Low Risk Software. She is a recipient of the
SAE Cordell Breed Award.
February 2023
23

https://www.youtube.com/@saeinternational https://www.sae.org/blog/twin-pillars-case-study https://www.sae.org/blog/twin-pillars-case-study https://www.sae.org/blog/twin-pillars-case-study https://www.sae.org/attend/aerotech

SAE Update - February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAE Update - February 2023