Manufacturers and operators producing or operating type certified aircraft or producing 1001 or more aircraft per year Proposed SMS Standards The organization must have a Full SMS Program Approved by the Administrator. National Aerospace Standard NAS 9927 complies with this requirement Rationale: Organizations of this size can be expected to produce complex unmanned systems with the highest market penetration, thereby having the highest probability of the public encountering them. This category does not include manufacturers of traditional model aircraft, unless those are equipped with FPV or electronic path finding capabilities. For these organizations, National Aerospace Standard NAS 9927 provides a robust SMS framework. As previously noted, it has been approved by the FAA for use by aircraft manufacturers.
4.4 Overview of Possible Approaches to Support Adoption of SMS by the UAS Industry Voluntary Measures Various industries and their regulators have developed an expansive body of reference material on the tenets of SMS. Proverbially, all of the hard work has been accomplished. The challenge as described by former Flight Safety Foundation President and former US Ambassador to ICAO, William (Bill) Voss is to not treat SMS as a process exercise and “reduce the concept to a series of checklists.”144 Clearly, the adoption case for SMS as a tool to reduce risk and prioritize safety spending is more attractive to industry than as process framework which places new administrative burdens. The airport industry tackled the presumed arrival of SMS with the help of pilot studies and research from the FAA and TRB. Beginning in 2008, over twenty-five airports volunteered to share their experience with the challenges and benefits of implementing SMS.145 Information collected included workload impact, gap analyses, benefits, and sufficiency of guidance material. Along with organizational benefits, airports reported that SMS helped establish a common language among stakeholders who shared safety responsibilities. Industry executives during this research noted that Atlanta (ATL), Seattle (SEA) and San Francisco (SFO) airports were especially proactive in sharing the benefits they accrued. These and other pathfinders influenced numerous other airports to trial SMS. In addition to sponsoring pilots and targeted research, the FAA provides tool kits and targeted funding for organizations to assess their state of readiness for SMS adoption. Central to the agency’s efforts is the SMS - Gap Analysis Tool and Implementation Planning Document. This resource allows an organization to establish benchmarks and identify gaps in existing processes against those needed for SMS. It does so by guiding
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