[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 16 (Friday, January 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3580-3581]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-1664]



[[Page 3580]]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

14 CFR Part 23

[Docket No. CE195; Special Conditions No. 23-135-SC]


Special Conditions: Adam Aircraft Industries; Model A500 
CarbonAero Airplane, Installation of Full Authority Digital Engine 
Control (FADEC) System and the Protection of the System From the 
Effects of High Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF)

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION: Final special conditions; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: These special conditions are issued for the Adam Aircraft 
Industries Model A500 CarbonAero airplane. This airplane will have a 
novel or unusual design feature(s) associated with the installation of 
an engine that uses an electronic engine control system in place of the 
engine's mechanical system. The applicable airworthiness regulations do 
not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design 
feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety 
standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a 
level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing 
airworthiness standards.

DATES: The effective date of these special conditions is December 30, 
2002. Comments must be received on or before February 24, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Comments on this proposal may be mailed in duplicate to: 
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Regional Counsel, ACE-7, 
Attention: Rules Docket, Docket No. CE195, 901 Locust, Room 506, Kansas 
City, Missouri 64106, or delivered in duplicate to the Regional Counsel 
at the above address. Comments must be marked: Docket No. CE195. 
Comments may be inspected in the Rules Docket weekdays, except Federal 
holidays, between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wes Ryan, Federal Aviation 
Administration, Aircraft Certification Service, Small Airplane 
Directorate, ACE-111, 901 Locust, Room 301, Kansas City, Missouri 
64106; 816-329-4127 fax 816-329-4090.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FAA has determined that notice and 
opportunity for prior public comment hereon are impracticable because 
these procedures would significantly delay issuance of the design 
approval and thus delivery of the affected aircraft. In addition, the 
substance of these special conditions has been subject to the public 
comment process in several prior instances with no substantive comments 
received. The FAA therefore finds that good cause exists for making 
these special conditions effective upon issuance.

Comments Invited

    Interested persons are invited to submit such written data, views, 
or arguments as they may desire. Communications should identify the 
regulatory docket or special condition number and be submitted in 
duplicate to the address specified above. All communications received 
on or before the closing date for comments will be considered by the 
Administrator. The special conditions may be changed in light of the 
comments received. All comments received will be available in the Rules 
Docket for examination by interested persons, both before and after the 
closing date for comments. A report summarizing each substantive public 
contact with FAA personnel concerning this rulemaking will be filed in 
the docket. Commenters wishing the FAA to acknowledge receipt of their 
comments submitted in response to this notice must include a self-
addressed, stamped postcard on which the following statement is made: 
``Comments to Docket No. CE195.'' The postcard will be date stamped and 
returned to the commenter.

Background

    On March 23, 2001, Adam Aircraft Industries applied for a type 
certificate for their new Model A500 CarbonAero. The Model A500 
CarbonAero is powered by two reciprocating engines equipped with 
electronic engine control systems with full authority capability in 
place of the hydromechanical control systems.

Type Certification Basis

    Under the provisions of 14 CFR part 21, Sec.  21.17, Adam Aircraft 
Industries must show that the Model A500 CarbonAero meets the 
applicable provisions of 14 CFR part 23, as amended by Amendments 23-1 
through 23-54, Federal Aviation Regulations part 36 with amendments 
effective on the date of certification, and any special conditions 
found necessary.
    If the Administrator finds that the applicable airworthiness 
regulations (i.e., 14 CFR part 23) do not contain adequate or 
appropriate safety standards for the Model A500 CarbonAero because of a 
novel or unusual design feature, special conditions are prescribed 
under the provisions of Sec.  21.16.
    In addition to the applicable airworthiness regulations and special 
conditions, the Model A500 CarbonAero must comply with the fuel vent 
and exhaust emission requirements of 14 CFR part 34 and the noise 
certification requirements of 14 CFR part 36, and the FAA must issue a 
finding of regulatory adequacy pursuant to Sec.  611 of Public Law 92-
574, the ``Noise Control Act of 1972.''
    Special conditions, as appropriate, as defined in 11.19, are issued 
in accordance with Sec.  11.38, and become part of the type 
certification basis in accordance with Sec.  21.17(a)(2).
    Special conditions are initially applicable to the model for which 
they are issued. Should the type certificate for that model be amended 
later to include any other model that incorporates the same novel or 
unusual design feature, the special conditions would also apply to the 
other model under the provisions of Sec.  21.101(a)(1).

Novel or Unusual Design Features

    The Model A500 CarbonAero will incorporate the following novel or 
unusual design features:
    The Model A500 CarbonAero airplane will use an engine that includes 
an electronic control system with full engine authority capability.
    Many advanced electronic systems are prone to either upsets or 
damage, or both, at energy levels lower than analog systems. The 
increasing use of high power radio frequency emitters mandates 
requirements for improved high intensity radiated fields (HIRF) 
protection for electrical and electronic equipment. Since the 
electronic engine control system used on the Adam Aircraft Model A500 
CarbonAero will perform critical functions, provisions for protection 
from the effects of HIRF should be considered and, if necessary, 
incorporated into the airplane design data. The FAA policy contained in 
Notice 8110.71, dated April 2, 1998, establishes the HIRF energy levels 
that airplanes will be exposed to in service. The guidelines set forth 
in this Notice are the result of an Aircraft Certification Service 
review of existing policy on HIRF, in light of the ongoing work of the 
Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) Electromagnetic Effects 
Harmonization Working Group (EEHWG). The EEHWG adopted a set of HIRF 
environment levels in November 1997 that were agreed upon by the FAA, 
JAA, and industry participants. As a result, the HIRF environments in 
this notice reflect the environment levels recommended by this working 
group.

[[Page 3581]]

This notice states that a FADEC is an example of a system that should 
address the HIRF environments.
    Even though the control system will be certificated as part of the 
engine, the installation of an engine with an electronic control system 
requires evaluation due to the possible effects on or by other airplane 
systems (e.g., radio interference with other airplane electronic 
systems, shared engine and airplane power sources). The regulatory 
requirements in 14 CFR part 23 for evaluating the installation of 
complex systems, including electronic systems, are contained in Sec.  
23.1309. However, when Sec.  23.1309 was developed, the use of 
electronic control systems for engines was not envisioned; therefore, 
the Sec.  23.1309 requirements were not applicable to systems 
certificated as part of the engine (reference Sec.  23.1309(f)(1)). 
Also, electronic control systems often require inputs from airplane 
data and power sources and outputs to other airplane systems (e.g., 
automated cockpit powerplant controls such as mixture setting). 
Although the parts of the system that are not certificated with the 
engine could be evaluated using the criteria of Sec.  23.1309, the 
integral nature of systems such as these makes it unfeasible to 
evaluate the airplane portion of the system without including the 
engine portion of the system. However, Sec.  23.1309(f)(1) again 
prevents complete evaluation of the installed airplane system since 
evaluation of the engine system's effects is not required.
    Therefore, special conditions are proposed for the Adam Aircraft 
Model A500 CarbonAero airplane to provide HIRF protection and to 
evaluate the installation of the electronic engine control system for 
compliance with the requirements of Sec.  23.1309(a) through (e) at 
Amendment 23-49.

Applicability

    As discussed above, these special conditions are applicable to the 
Model A500 CarbonAero. Should Adam Aircraft Industries apply at a later 
date for a change to the type certificate to include another model 
incorporating the same novel or unusual design feature, the special 
conditions would apply to that model as well under the provisions of 
Sec.  21.101.

Conclusion

    This action affects only certain novel or unusual design features 
on one model, Model A500 CarbonAero, of airplanes. It is not a rule of 
general applicability, and it affects only the applicant who applied to 
the FAA for approval of these features on the airplane.
    Under standard practice, the effective date of final special 
conditions would be 30 days after the date of publication in the 
Federal Register; however, as the certification date for the Adam 
Aircraft Industries Model A500 CarbonAero is imminent, the FAA finds 
that good cause exists to make these special conditions effective upon 
issuance.

List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 23

    Aircraft, Aviation safety, Signs and symbols.

Citation

    The authority citation for these special conditions is as follows:

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113 and 44701; 14 CFR 21.16 and 
21.17; and 14 CFR 11.38 and 11.19.

The Special Conditions

    Accordingly, pursuant to the authority delegated to me by the 
Administrator, the following special conditions are issued as part of 
the type certification basis for Adam Aircraft Industries Model A500 
CarbonAero airplanes.
    1. High Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) Protection. In showing 
compliance with 14 CFR part 21 and the airworthiness requirements of 14 
CFR part 23, protection against hazards caused by exposure to HIRF 
fields for the full authority digital engine control system, which 
performs critical functions, must be considered. To prevent this 
occurrence, the electronic engine control system must be designed and 
installed to ensure that the operation and operational capabilities of 
this critical system are not adversely affected when the airplane is 
exposed to high energy radio fields.
    At this time, the FAA and other airworthiness authorities are 
unable to precisely define or control the HIRF energy level to which 
the airplane will be exposed in service; therefore, the FAA hereby 
defines two acceptable interim methods for complying with the 
requirement for protection of systems that perform critical functions.
    (1) The applicant may demonstrate that the operation and 
operational capability of the installed electrical and electronic 
systems that perform critical functions are not adversely affected when 
the aircraft is exposed to the external HIRF threat environment defined 
in the following table:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        Field strength
                                                       (volts per meter)
                      Frequency                      -------------------
                                                        Peak     Average
------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 kHz-100 kHz......................................        50        50
100 kHz-500 kHz.....................................        50        50
500 kHz-2 MHz.......................................        50        50
2 MHz-30 MHz........................................       100       100
30 MHz-70 MHz.......................................        50        50
70 MHz-100 MHz......................................        50        50
100 MHz-200 MHz.....................................       100       100
200 MHz-400 MHz.....................................       100       100
400 MHz-700 MHz.....................................       700        50
700 MHz-1 GHz.......................................       700       100
1 GHz-2 GHz.........................................      2000       200
2 GHz-4 GHz.........................................      3000       200
4 GHz-6 GHz.........................................      3000       200
6 GHz-8 GHz.........................................      1000       200
8 GHz-12 GHz........................................      3000       300
12 GHz-18 GHz.......................................      2000       200
18 GHz-40 GHz.......................................       600       200
 
 The field strengths are expressed in terms of peak root-mean-square
 (rms) values.
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    (2) The applicant may demonstrate by a system test and analysis 
that the electrical and electronic systems that perform critical 
functions can withstand a minimum threat of 100 volts per meter peak 
electrical strength, without the benefit of airplane structural 
shielding, in the frequency range of 10 KHz to 18 GHz. When using this 
test to show compliance with the HIRF requirements, no credit is given 
for signal attenuation due to installation. Data used for engine 
certification may be used, when appropriate, for airplane 
certification.
    2. Electronic Engine Control System. The installation of the 
electronic engine control system must comply with the requirements of 
Sec.  23.1309(a) through (e) at Amendment 23-46. The intent of this 
requirement is not to re-evaluate the inherent hardware reliability of 
the control itself, but rather determine the effects, including 
environmental effects addressed in Sec.  23.1309(e), on the airplane 
systems and engine control system when installing the control on the 
airplane. When appropriate, engine certification data may be used when 
showing compliance with this requirement.

    Issued in Kansas City, Missouri on December 30, 2002.
James E. Jackson,
Acting Manager, Small Airplane Directorate, Aircraft Certification 
Service.
[FR Doc. 03-1664 Filed 1-23-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P