Will Jointly Certify Aircraft With The FAA

Aero-News April 1 Special Edition

A member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is drafting legislation that would shift regulation of electric aircraft to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

A staffer for the unnamed Senator told Aero News April 1 that the legislation is still in its first draft, but that their boss feels strongly that the FAA should not be the sole authority for electric aircraft.

"It's like this. There's electricity involved, and the FAA doesn't know squat about electricity," our source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in a telephone interview from Capitol Hill. "Senator X is really surprised that this hasn't been considered before, since he says the FAA really doesn't know squat about gasoline and other fossil or biofuels either. But with this emerging technology, it's a perfect opportunity for us to place additional regulations on aviation."

Under the proposed change, the FERC would jointly certify electric aircraft with the FAA, according to a spokesperson for the FERC not authorized to speak to the media, but who did so anyway. The spokesperson said the change would add additional levels of safety to electric aircraft. "I mean, one little static charge could fry the entire vehicle," the source said. "With electric airliners on drawing boards around the world, can you imagine what that would mean if a passenger touched a metal handle going into the lav and brought down the entire airplane? We have to do something to prevent such a tragedy."

But the legislation would also cover most model airplanes and drones, according to the source. "We want to take over regulation of that segment from the FAA as well, since they're nearly ALL electric. We're an obscure agency that never gets much attention, and to get control of the exploding drone universe would really put us on the funding map. Since the FAA has lumped in model airplanes with drones, I guess we'd be forced to take them too."

FMI: www.ferc.gov