The FAA recently announced it has expanded the use of Technical Advisory Boards (TAB) as part of its overhaul of the aircraft certification process.
TABs are made up of “independent groups of internal and external safety experts for certification projects such as commercial aircraft, smaller aircraft, and drones.” TABs will also “go beyond a key requirement of the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act.”
How’d we get here?
In a word, Boeing.
In the wake of the Boeing 737 MAX debacle, the FAA has been curtailing manufacturer delegation of design certification. That’s probably a good idea, especially for those who took advantage of delegation authority.
But it also makes things more challenging for those who were playing by the rules with their delegation authority.
Jargon and opining aside, one part of the FAA’s announcement stands out to me.
The new TAB approach builds on recent aircraft certification reforms. These include:
- Delegating fewer responsibilities to manufacturers and demanding more transparency from them;
- Hiring additional personnel as we increase our research on how over-reliance on automation potentially affects basic piloting skills; and
- Expanding our evaluation of manufacturers’ assumptions about human factors that equipment manufacturers make when performing system safety assessments, including pilot response times.
Automation’s benefits and drawbacks will be debated as long as humans breathe. But my immediate thought upon reading the bolded bullet above was: What about when there isn’t a pilot on board?
Isn’t advanced air mobility (AAM) focused on full autonomy?
Yes.
According to BAE Systems, “The AAM concept creates innovative, yet cost-effective aircraft with a low carbon footprint. NASA and other AAM proponents have promoted air vehicle designs ‘enabled by electrification and scaled through automation.’ Thus, virtually all of the developed AAM vehicles have all-electric or hybrid-electric power systems, aside from some exploration into hydrogen-powered zero-emission aircraft. Many are highly automated to navigate from point-to-point safely without a human operator aboard.”
Maybe this’ll turn out to be a positive. After all, if no pilot is on board, their basic piloting skills won’t atrophy. <— That is sarcasm.
But then again, maybe full autonomy isn’t the answer either.
Telsa CEO Elon Musk admitted as much in 2018 with regards to manufacturing the Telsa Model 3.
“Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”
I’m not a car builder. I’m not an AAM developer. I’m not qualified to be named to any TAB. For that matter, I never liked the taste of TAB.
But if there is concern of an “over-reliance on automation” as the FAA rejiggers the certification process for human-piloted aircraft, I sure hope the FAA will take a long hard look when a pilot is NOT on board.
From the FAA announcement: “TAB members focus on a big-picture view of the project. Depending on the level of review, their responsibilities could include identifying new technologies, designs or design features that could be catastrophic if they failed.”
That’s good.
Delegation is great. Until it isn’t.
Unfortunately, reduction of delegation isn’t necessarily the answer. Productivity at the FAA, already lower than it should be, ground to a halt over the past few years with Covid. Simple things like registrations are months behind where previously they took weeks, facilities aren’t getting inspected because the FAA won’t travel, etc., and meanwhile they are removing authority from their local offices and representatives so that certification programs take even longer.
This is not to say that Boeing didn’t give the ODA program a black eye and ruin it for a lot of good companies who followed the rules. However, until I see certification processes become more streamlined, efficient, and yes, FASTER, I remain skeptical.
They’re researching whether or not
airline pilots (newsflash: any person) lose their skill if they rely too heavily on automation? I hope the research doesn’t cost too much. It’s the least necessary research since
“whats better on french fries, ketchup or dirt?”.
Of course humans, be they pilots, surgeons, sailors or seamstresses
are better at their chosen profession when they do it versus delegating to a computer while they get rusty.
Not coincidentally, the general aviation types I fly with at my airline are much better sticks…and hand fly the airbus much more, than non G.A. types.
For good, or bad, this technology has already left the barn, and we’ll all have to figure out how to adapt to/with it, safely, while moving forward.
And not just in aviation. Keep all these issues in mind the next time you get passed, at night, on a 2-lane road, by a new GMC pickup truck equipped with “Super Cruise, with the driver holding a cheeseburger in one hand & a beer in the other while he stares at the stars out of his open moonroof, listening to Queen through his noise-cancelling sound system.
One of the problems that I see in airlines is, what do I do when the automatics quit because…. And now I have an airplane at altitude that has the stick shaker going, but my airspeed is above stall for the captain, and below stall for the FO?
This is why one needs to fly with the automatics off, until proficient. Why? Because all that AI stuff (Flight computer, etc.), otherwise at times called “George” tends to give up with the plane in the worst of the flight envelope. And you better be careful here, because of the altitude, you might over stress the plane you are flying in and lose parts.
What computer would have figured out to get into the LEM for O2? And if you have no idea what I mean, you are a bit young. But it happened to an Apollo mission.
When all those circuits and sensors and processors are working, they’re great. If they decide to take a break or just give up the ghost for some or no reason at all, it’s nice to have one of those underrated humans along to fly the aircraft. I’ll take my pilots warm blooded, thank you.
Problem is who is overrated or underrated and in who’s eyes. And when those eyes are overrated themselves you eventually promote IWA…that’s Ignorance With Authority.
Isn’t that the source of the constant battle?