Airworthiness Foundations is a 32-hour live-online course, customized for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) engineers, managers, and regulatory personnel. It covers how unmanned aircraft are certified and how they remain airworthy through repair, modification, and sustainment when deployed across multiple theaters. Participants learn to apply US military, NATO, and European standards, including MIL-HDBK-516D and STANAG 4671, so that field and depot work preserves each aircraft's certification basis wherever it operates.
Airworthiness Foundations is a 32-hour live-online course, customized for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) engineers, managers, and regulatory personnel. It covers how unmanned aircraft are certified and how they remain airworthy through repair, modification, and sustainment when deployed across multiple theaters. Participants learn to apply US military, NATO, and European standards, including MIL-HDBK-516D and STANAG 4671, so that field and depot work preserves each aircraft's certification basis wherever it operates.
Airworthiness Foundations is delivered as eight four-hour live-online sessions over two weeks. It runs as a hands-on workshop that uses real-world case studies to work through sustainment and repair problems: keeping the type certificate valid through field repairs and sensor pod swaps, choosing between structural repair and modular replacement on composite airframes, and setting inspection intervals for long-endurance missions.
Participants work through the standards that govern these decisions across theaters: MIL-HDBK-516D as the certification baseline, Air Force, Navy, and Army requirements for joint programs, STANAG 4671 and EASA CS-23/25 for NATO and European operators, and MIL-STD-882E and ARP-4754A for system safety analysis. Safety management systems are applied to flight test and depot maintenance.
The program has been customized for GA-ASI and complies with AIA NAS9945 "Airworthiness Engineering Training and Education" (2020) and its supporting standards, the industry benchmark for airworthiness expertise.
Safety Management Systems (SMS): Applying SMS to flight test operations and depot-level maintenance facilities
Configuration Management: Ensuring field repairs and component swaps (e.g., sensor pods) don't invalidate the Type Certificate
Module 4: Advanced Repair & Emerging Tech
Repair vs. Replacement Logic: Criteria for structural repairs on composite airframes versus modular component swaps
Digital Engineering & Airworthiness: How Digital Twins and MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering) streamline the certification of modifications
The AI Frontier: Challenges in certifying autonomous "Detect and Avoid" (DAA) systems and AI-driven mission logic
Future Trends: Certification of hybrid-electric UAS propulsion and the evolution of "Condition-Based Maintenance" (CBM)
This course is for GA-ASI engineers, managers, and regulatory personnel whose work affects the airworthiness of unmanned aircraft after initial certification. Typical participants include airworthiness and certification engineers, structures and repair engineers, sustainment and depot maintenance staff, configuration management and quality personnel, and engineering or program managers who approve repairs, modifications, or component changes. It is especially relevant for those supporting joint-service programs or international customers, where work must satisfy US military, NATO, and European requirements at the same time. Flight test and system safety engineers who support military flight releases or certification for operation in non-segregated airspace will also benefit.
No prior airworthiness training is required. Participants should have a working familiarity with aircraft systems and with engineering or maintenance processes at GA-ASI.
Course NameAirworthiness Foundations
Format
Live-Online
Duration32 Hours
Start DateDecember 7
End DateDecember 17
Meet TimesOn the following days: December 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 2026; 8 AM - 12 PM Pacific Time