EASAs Patrick Ky om AAM - AW&ST

 

Patrick Ky has been executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency since 2013. During his tenure, EASA has risen to become a regulator of global relevance, taking a more independent stance during the Boeing 737 MAX crisis and in certifying the 777X. Ky spoke with Aviation Week’s Jens Flottau and Sean Broderick about the agency’s changing role and its upcoming challenges. Excerpts from the conversation follow

Et utdrag av den lange samtalen:

Advanced air mobility (AAM) is an emerging sector in the industry. What are your main concerns from a regulatory perspective? First, we have a disagreement with the FAA on the level of safety. But I can understand as well that the operational context is different. In the U.S., there is much more use of general aviation, which we don’t have in Europe. Since AAM is going to take place predominantly around densely populated areas, the target level of safety should be the same as for commercial aviation. I think there are difficulties in the business case, which are not my problem, but they also drive some design requirements. If you have an air taxi with four seats, whether you have a pilot or not makes a huge difference from a business perspective. It also has an impact on certification.

And the new aircraft have to be integrated into the airspace? Yes, and that has to happen in a safe manner. It is the type of airspace where you have helicopters, firefighters, emergency services. We need to work on this. It is certainly a challenge. The third challenge is electrical power. Are we sufficiently reassured that we have enough power to perform safe operations in all types of environments, [with] heat, low temperatures, [instrument flight rules] conditions, rain, icing? Can the batteries maintain the safety levels in all kinds of conditions? The fourth will be the training of pilots. Will there be helicopter or airline pilots? Do we have enough to serve the needs of this new market? I don’t think so, at the moment, but if we have to ramp up, can we have enough training? It is more of an issue with the microsystem rather than the airplane itself.