Engineering aviation service of the civil aviation: from technical operation to continued airworthiness (part 2)

The article continues and develops the subject of the civil aviation engineering service in the 75th anniversary year of its existence, raised in the first article on this theme. It analyzes the activities of the aviation engineering service in the early post-Soviet period, when the main regulatory document was the fifth edition of the Manual on Technical Operation and Repair of Aviation Equipment (NTERAT GA-93). An analysis of the goals, objectives and functions of the aviation engineering service during this period, regulated by the manual, is carried out. It is shown how they changed and were supplemented in the process of accumulating experience until a coherent system of technical operation of aviation equipment was formed, including aviation personnel – the basis of the aviation engineering service until continuing airworthiness became its main task. The article analyzes the main documents of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in historical and substantive aspects, shows the structure of domestic federal aviation regulations in their development in terms of continuing airworthiness. The problems that have arisen due to the loss of the normative and legal status of the terms “technical operation” and “aviation engineering service” are identified. The tasks that arise in this regard are formulated. It is proposed to change the list of aviation personnel by adding a specialist in continuing airworthiness management to it with the issuance of a certificate with the qualification category D with the privilege to prepare an airworthiness review certificate for an aircraft instance. The need to retain the names of specialties in the technical maintenance of aircraft and their components in the new federal educational standards, to fill the content of higher education curricula with coverage of the technically competent use of aviation equipment, including in flight, as well as the management of continuing airworthiness of aircraft and the suitability of their components for safe flight is substantiated.