Part-21 Light - Making Design & Manufacturing Easier

Simplified Entry Levels for Small Low Risk Aircraft

Background

As part of the GA Roadmap 2.0, EASA made a commitment to drastically simplify the airworthiness system (design and production) for the lower end of General Aviation (GA) with smaller and less complex aircraft and with minimal risks to third parties.

Today, the design and production of these GA aircraft is mostly subject to the same regulatory requirements (‘Part 21’) as large aircraft operated in commercial air transport. This approach is now widely considered to be outdated and inefficient.

EASA is committed to proposing a new regulatory framework that fully corresponds and is proportionate to the nature, risk and needs of the GA sector while ensuring the necessary levels of safety. Therefore, EASA has started to review the current ‘Part 21’ in view of the airworthiness of GA aircraft, and in particular those intended primarily for sports and recreational use. In this respect, EASA intends to take full account of the new tools and greater regulatory flexibility introduced by Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 (the new basic Regulation).

The idea behind this new concept is to stimulate innovation, drive safety improvements and reinvigorate the EU GA market by establishing a simplified process for determining compliance of small GA aircraft with the applicable requirements and having much more proportionate requirements for the organisations involved in their design and production.

The outcome of this activity will not result in any changes in EASA or National Aviation Authorities (NAAs) responsibilities.

New rules concerning design and production activities for light GA aircraft

EASA considers that the best way to introduce the necessary proportionality is by creating a dedicated set of rules concerning design and production activities for light GA aircraft (‘Part 21 light’), which would be separate from the current ‘Part 21’.

Your contribution matters

EASA believes that the development of new rules on this topic is best served by a process where all are able to see and comment on the directions taken.
Therefore, this dedicated web page is initiated to give the latest information regarding progress and the content of this rulemaking activity. Related content is available under 'Downloads', see below.

We organise workshops in order to discuss the development of this concept. A link to the upcoming workshops can be found in ‘Related Content’, see below.

If you are interested in attending future events please subscribe to EASA updates on General Aviation or if you would like to provide comments on the proposal, please send an e-mail to the e-mail address below: GA-roadmap [at] easa.europa.eu (GA-roadmap[at]easa[dot]europa[dot]eu).