Part 23 covers small aircraft and was stream-


lined in 2017 to speed the incorporation of new technologies. Instead, the FAA said in May that eVTOL aircraft would be approved under CFR 21.17(b), which covers special aircraft classes and requires certificate applicants and the FAA to determine which elements of six different CFRs must be met. AW609 and FAA officials agreed early on in the tiltrotor’s certification efforts that the 21.17(b) “special class” rules would apply. In November, FAA officials further stirred


things up, announcing plans to overhaul the CFRs’ air carrier definition to cover powered lift operations and training. Te agency said the proposed changes would be open for public comment and finalized before the first powered lift aircraft was certificated. Te rules would be laid out in a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR), with its draft released mid-2023 and a final version in the second half of 2024. As of the end of January 2023, however, the FAA hadn’t released the AW609’s final G-1


certification basis for public comment. Te agency also hadn’t signed off on the tiltrotor’s type inspection authorization (TIA), a milestone marking the FAA’s completed examination of technical data required for type certification. Te TIA clears FAA officials to begin conformity and airworthiness inspections and ground and flight tests needed to fulfill type certificate requirements. “Te FAA will be conducting an early


involvement, pre-TIA flight in the very near future,” Sunick says. Leonardo officials have said they believe


“the 609 will be certified with its own certifi- cation basis in advance of the SFAR.” Te AW609’s proposed 21.17(b) certification


basis draws on airworthiness standards from Parts 29 (Transport Category Rotorcraft), 25 (Transport Category Airplanes), and 23 (Normal Category Airplanes); draft airworthiness stan- dards for powered lift transport aircraft (referred to as Part XX); and unique tiltrotor requirements (referred to as TR).


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The Rich History of Tiltrotors Tiltrotor history goes back at least 90 years, including George Lehberger’s US patent in 1930, though no aircraft was built to that design. By the early 1950s, the US Army and US Air Force jointly researched an aircraft capable of helicopter-like takeoffs and landings but with airplane-fast flight. Tey used McDonnell Aircraft’s XV-1 compound helicopter but also funded research on two Bell XV-3 tiltrotors through the 1950s. NASA continued that research into the mid-1960s. NASA’s research prompted its 1972 XV-15


program, under which Bell and Boeing Vertol won contracts for separate designs. Bell’s used rotating engine/gearbox/rotor assemblies in wingtip pods. Boeing’s used stationary engines with rotating rotor pods (like Bell’s new V-280 Valor). NASA chose Bell’s Model 301 tiltrotor for flight tests into the 1980s. Bell and Boeing later teamed up for the US Defense Department’s Joint-Service Vertical Take-off/Landing Experimental (JVX) program, proposing in


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Airwolf_1/3.indd 2 1/25/22 3:08 PM MARCH 2023 ROTOR 33


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