HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING FOR MANUFACTURERS, REGULATORS, AND OPERATORS

Bell Murray Aviation (BMA) provides FAA Part 142 and Part 61 Aircrew Training.  Integration of unmanned aircraft will require a transition program for aircraft that includes existing manned aircraft being modified for remote operations. 

Modified and new aircraft certification applicants will need to provide the FAA with data related to the Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA) and/or Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) conditions.  FAR 23 and FAR 25 require submission of data to support FAA assessment of the operating handbook for the aircraft. 

An emerging area of FAA assessment is the need for additional data supporting UAS human performance decision making components for both the aircrew and the maintainer portions of the aircraft system and airmen certification regulations.

Unmanned aircraft designed without a flight deck using only remote operation are so new to non-military operators that the regulators approach certification as more of a team effort to define the human factors, with a mandate to ensure all aspects of aviation safety are met.  This process, without clear requirements and definition to guide it, becomes a long and arduous process.  BMA Unmanned is building on their decades of human performance assessment to provide clear definition of pre-certification human factors, validated in a simulated environment that produces reliable human factors data in support of certification.