Today’s Federal Register announced that some of the manufacturing policy-makers at FAA Headquarters will merge into a single unit. The engineering division and the production division are currently separated into two different offices, and they will become one office effective February 9.
Today, in addition to the office of the director, there are five different offices/divisions within the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service:
- AIR-1: Office of the Director
- AIR-20: Fuels Program Office
- AIR-40: International Policy Office
- AIR-100: Aircraft Engineering Division
- AIR-200: Production and Airworthiness Division
- AIR-500: Planning and Program Management Division
This change will merge AIR-100 and AIR-200 into a single division, which will be known as the Design, Manufacturing, and Airworthiness Division, and will bear the mail-stop code AIR-100. The new division will feature five branches:
- Certification and Procedures Branch (AIR-110)
- Technical and Administrative Support Branch (AIR-120)
- Systems and Equipment Standards Branch (AIR-130)
- Operational Oversight Policy Branch (AIR-140)
- System Performance and Development Branch (AIR- 150)
The Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) Organizational Design Concept (AODC) has been working for several years on ways to better organize Aircraft Certification. AODC identified some overlap in certain functions being performed by AIR-100 and AIR-200. The merger allows the two divisions to reduce some duplication in those administrative functions.
David Hempe, who leads AIR-100 today, will continue to lead the merged division.