Avionics News July 2015 - 12

In this monthly column, Ric Peri of the AEA's Washington, D.C., office, informs members of the latest regulatory updates.

B Y

R I C

P E R I
A EA V I C E P R ES I D E N T O F G OV E R N M E N T & I N D U ST RY A F FA I RS

Plus ça change,
plus c'est la même chose

T

o borrow a line from French critic and journalist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, plus ça change, plus c'est la même
chose, which means "the more things change, the more
they stay the same."
This quote seems to be an appropriate way to begin this
month's column in light of the recent claims about consensus
standards and how the Part 23 community is so revolutionary. But then again, perhaps the quote should instead focus
on the "not-invented-here syndrome." Or maybe, like most
things, it's a little bit of both!
The Cambridge Dictionary defines the not-invented-here
syndrome as "an idea that a product or system that was
developed somewhere else cannot be as good as one that a
company develops itself."
This certainly sums up a significant amount of conversations about the aircraft system consensus standards that have
occurred during the past few years. But I'm not convinced that the
not-invented-here syndrome is simply about what is developed
internally to any given civil aviation authority (FAA, EASA,
CASA, etc.) but also from a natural extension of the consensus
bodies they are familiar with, as well.
Industry professionals are familiar with the RTCA standards
used in aircraft systems, or the military specifications for hardware, or the SAE standards, or even technical standard orders.
These are all consensus standards.
Consensus standards (both public and government) have been
used in aircraft for more than 100 years. Depending on what aircraft system you were trained on (military, light GA, rotorcraft,
business or commercial aviation) will generally dictate the given
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AVIONICS NEWS

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JULY

2015

type of consensus standards you're most comfortable with. And
as a corollary, this dictates which standard you're not comfortable
with because, well, it wasn't invented here!
While military standards date back to the late 1700s, we can
see one of the earlier "standards" in the airfoil standards documented by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the notinvented-here syndrome as "an idea that
a product or system that was developed
somewhere else cannot be as good as one
that a company develops itself."

the early 1920s - cataloging, documenting and testing many of
the designs developed from the three previous decades and then
publishing a standard for airfoils that has been regularly updated
and used today.
Dating back to 1916, the Society of Automobile Engineers, the
year before the current name of Society of Automotive Engineers
was adopted, admitted members of the American Society of
Aeronautical Engineers. By all indications, the nearly 30,000 SAE
aerospace standards that are used today in nearly every aspect of
aviation, from tools and materials to specific aircraft components,
will be celebrating its 100th birthday next year.
Celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2015, the Radio Technical
Commission for Aeronautics was founded in 1935. According
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2015
