scope:

FOREWORD

Historical

background Standards and Recommended Practices for the Airworthiness of Aircraft were adopted by the Council on 1 March 1949 pursuant to the provisions of Article 37 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago 1944) and designated as Annex 8 to the Convention.

The Annex contained, in Part II, general airworthiness procedures applicable to all aircraft and in Part III, minimum airworthiness characteristics for aeroplanes provided, or to be provided, with certificates of airworthiness classifying them in an established ICAO category. Part I contained definitions.

At its fourth session, the Airworthiness Division collaborating with the Operations Division made recommendations concerning the use of a performance code as an alternative to the one contained in the Annex, in which the climb values had the status of Recommended Practices. Further, the Airworthiness Division made recommendations concerning certain aspects of the certification in ICAO categories. As a result of those recommendations, the Council approved the incorporation of the alternative performance code as Attachment A but stated its belief that since agreement had not yet been reached on Standards covering performance, there existed no basis for certification in ICAO Category A. It urged the Contracting States to refrain from such certification pending the becoming effective of Standards on performance or until such time as the Council decides on the basic policy on airworthiness.

The Assembly at its seventh session (June 1953) endorsed the action already taken by the Council and the Air Navigation Commission to initiate a fundamental study of ICAO policy on international airworthiness and directed the Council to complete the study as rapidly as practicable.

In pursuing such study, the Air Navigation Commission was helped by an international body of experts designated as the "Airworthiness Panel", which contributed to the preparation of the work of the Third Air Navigation Conference.

As a result of these studies, a revised policy on international airworthiness was developed and it was approved by the Council in 1956. According to this policy, the principle of certification in an ICAO Category was abandoned. Instead, Annex 8 included broad Standards which defined, for application by the competent national authorities, the complete minimum international basis for the recognition by States of certificates of airworthiness for the purpose of the flight of aircraft of other States into or over their territories, thereby achieving, among other purposes, protection of other aircraft, third persons and property. It was considered that this met the obligation of the Organization under Article 37 of the Convention to adopt International Standards of airworthiness.

It was recognized that the ICAO Standards of airworthiness would not replace national regulations and that national codes of airworthiness containing the full scope and extent of detail considered necessary by individual States would be necessary as the basis for the certification of individual aircraft. Each State would establish its own comprehensive and detailed code of airworthiness or would select a comprehensive and detailed code established by another Contracting State. The level of airworthiness defined by this code would be indicated by the Standards, supplemented, if necessary, by Acceptable Means of Compliance.

In application of those principles, the Annex was declared as constituting the minimum standards for the purpose of Article 33. It was also recognized that the Annex might, at the time of adoption, not include technical Standards for all classes of aircraft or even for all classes of aeroplanes, if the Council felt that no technical Standards were required at that time to render Article 33 operative. Furthermore, adoption or amendment of the Annex declared to be complete for the purpose of Article 33 did not constitute the end of ICAO's work in the airworthiness field, as there was a need to continue international collaboration in airworthiness matters.

A revised text for Annex 8 consistent with the above principles was prepared on the basis of the recommendations made by the Third Air Navigation Conference (Montréal, September-October 1956). Part III of the Annex was limited to broad Standards stating the objectives rather than the methods of realizing those objectives. However, to indicate by examples the level of airworthiness intended by some of the broad Standards, specifications of a more detailed and quantitative nature were included under the title "Acceptable Means of Compliance". These specifications were intended to assist the Contracting States in the establishment and application of comprehensive and detailed national airworthiness codes.

To adopt a code giving an appreciably lower level of airworthiness than that given in an Acceptable Means of Compliance was considered to be a violation of the Standard supplemented by that Acceptable Means of Compliance.

The revised text for Annex 8 was included in the Fourth Edition of the Annex, which superseded the First, Second and Third Editions.

Another recommendation of the Third Air Navigation Conference led to the establishment by the Council in 1957 of the Airworthiness Committee, consisting of airworthiness experts with broad experience and selected from those Contracting States and International Organizations willing to contribute.

Present policy on international airworthiness. There had been some concern about the slow progress that had been made over the years with respect to developing supplementary airworthiness specifications in the form of Acceptable Means of Compliance. It was noted that the majority of the Acceptable Means of Compliance in Annexes 6 and 8 had been developed in 1957 and were therefore applicable to only those aeroplane types operating at that time. No effort had been made to update the specifications in these Acceptable Means of Compliance nor had there been any recommendations from the Airworthiness Committee for upgrading of any of the Provisional Acceptable Means of Compliance, which had been developed as potential material for full-fledged Acceptable Means of Compliance. The Air Navigation Commission therefore requested the Airworthiness Committee to review the progress made by it since its inception with a view to determining whether or not desired results had been achieved and to recommend any changes to improve the development of detailed airworthiness specifications.

The Airworthiness Committee at its Ninth Meeting (Montréal, November/December 1970) made a detailed study of the problems and recommended that the concept of developing airworthiness specifications in the form of Acceptable Means of Compliance and Provisional Acceptable Means of Compliance be abandoned and a provision be made for an airworthiness technical manual to be prepared and published by ICAO to include guidance material intended to facilitate the development and uniformity of national airworthiness codes by Contracting States.

The Air Navigation Commission reviewed the recommendations of the Airworthiness Committee in the light of the history of the development of the airworthiness policy approved by the Council in 1956. It came to the conclusion that the basic objectives and principles on which the ICAO airworthiness policy had been based were sound and did not require any significant change. It was also concluded that the main reason for the slow progress in the development of airworthiness specifications in the form of Acceptable Means of Compliance and Provisional Acceptable Means of Compliance was the degree of mandatory status to the former implied by the following statement included in the Forewords of the Fourth and Fifth Editions of Annex 8:

"To adopt a code giving an appreciably lower level of airworthiness than that given in an Acceptable Means of Compliance would be a violation of the Standard supplemented by that Acceptable Means of Compliance."

Several approaches were examined by the Air Navigation Commission to eliminate this difficulty. Finally, it came to the conclusion that the idea of developing airworthiness specifications in the form of Acceptable Means of Compliance and Provisional Acceptable Means of Compliance should be abandoned and ICAO should declare that the States' obligations, for the purpose of Article 33 of the Convention, shall be met by their compliance with the broad Standards in Annex 8 supplemented, as necessary, by airworthiness technical guidance material, devoid of all mandatory implications or obligations. Also, the requirement that each Contracting State should either establish its own comprehensive and detailed code of airworthiness or select a comprehensive and detailed code established by another Contracting State should be retained.

The Council on 15 March 1972 approved the above approach to form the basis for the present policy of ICAO in the field of airworthiness. According to this policy:

a) the objective of international airworthiness Standards is to define, for application by the competent national authorities, the minimum level of airworthiness constituting the international basis for the recognition by States, under Article 33 of the Convention, of certificates of airworthiness for the purpose of the flight of aircraft of other States into or over their territories, thereby achieving, among other things, protection of other aircraft, third parties and property;

b) the Standards developed to meet the objective stated in a) are considered by the Council as meeting, in the necessary scope and detail, the obligations of the Organization under Article 37 of the Convention to adopt International Standards of airworthiness;

c) international airworthiness Standards adopted by the Council are recognized as being the complete international code necessary to bring into force and effect the rights and obligations which arise under Article 33 of the Convention;

d) the technical airworthiness Standards in Annex 8 shall be presented as broad specifications stating the objectives rather than the means of realizing these objectives; ICAO recognizes that national codes of airworthiness containing the full scope and extent of detail considered necessary by individual States are required as the basis for the certification by individual States of airworthiness of each aircraft;

e) to assist States in applying the Standards of Annex 8 and in developing their own comprehensive national codes in a uniform manner, detailed guidance material shall be developed and published expeditiously in the working languages of the Organization.

The Council also approved the issuance of the airworthiness guidance material under the title of Airworthiness Technical Manual. It was understood that the guidance material will, before issuance, be examined by the Air Navigation Commission. It will, however, have no formal status and its main purpose would be to provide guidance to Contracting States in developing the appropriate airworthiness requirements mentioned in 3.2.2 of Part II of the Annex.

A text for Annex 8 consistent with the policy on international airworthiness, approved by the Council on 15 March 1972, was developed by the Air Navigation Commission.

Table A shows the origin of amendments together with a list of the principal subjects involved and the dates on which the Annex and the amendments were adopted by the Council, when they became effective and when they became applicable.

On 6 June 2000, the Air Navigation Commission reviewed the recommendation of the Continuing Airworthiness Panel and the Airworthiness Study Group, in light of the introduction of the type certification process, to introduce the Type Certificate concept. It came to the conclusion that this internationally used and known certificate was already introduced in the Airworthiness Technical Manual (Doc 9051) and that its introduction complements the type certification process, making the text of Annex 8 consistent with its international airworthiness use.

It was further noted that the State of Registry, which is in charge of the issuance or validation of Certificates of Airworthiness by virtue of Article 31 of the Convention, and the State of Design may be different States, with separate functions and duties, and two independent responsibilities. Accordingly, the requirements governing the issuance of Type Certificates in accordance with applicable provisions of Annex 8 are not part of "the minimum standards" which govern the issuance or validation of Certificates of Airworthiness, and lead to the recognition of their validity pursuant to Article 33 of the Convention.

On 7 October 2003, the Air Navigation Commission reviewed the recommendations of the Airworthiness Panel and in light of the observation that small aircraft of a maximum certificated take-off mass greater than 750 kg but not exceeding 5 700 kg are more engaged in international air navigation, it agreed to include in the Annex, for the first time, airworthiness Standards for small aeroplanes, making the text of Annex 8 consistent with its international use.

On 21 November 2013, the Air Navigation Commission reviewed the recommendations of the Airworthiness Panel and in light of the observation that small aircraft of a maximum certificated take-off mass below 750 kg are more engaged in international air navigation, agreed to amend, with an applicability of 7 March 2021, the Annex airworthiness Standards for small aeroplanes, removing the lower take-off mass limit of Annex 8 consistent with its international use.