The Aviation Industries’ Use of Product Safety Standards

This paper provides an overview of the aviation industries’ use of the several thousand product safety standards developed to cover aircraft and aircraft components. The use of these standards by the FAA, DOD, manufacturers, testing laboratories, and safety inspectors is discussed. An introduction of how these standards are developed by manufacturers, aviation societies, engineering societies, and the government is presented and the importance of developing these standards using a process that ensures that due process was followed is also covered. The roles of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) are also presented.