Supplemental Type Certificates (STC)

by Peter
(USA)

Are European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) STC's approved by the FAA for airworthiness certification?

ANSWER: EASA STC's (if not also an FAA STC) will need to be reviewed and approved by the FAA prior to airworthiness certification. Just like FAA STC's have to be reviewed and approved by EASA prior to EASA airworthiness certification.

There are bilateral agreements in place between the FAA and some countries for the acceptance of modification data, but the wording is such that DAR's can only accept the modification data up to the level of an STC, then it has to be reviewed by the FAA and approved.

In lieu of that you can ask a Designated Engineering Representative (DER) to review and approve the data used to make the modification. This approval is recorded on an FAA Form 8110-3.

Once the data used to make the modification is approved, a conformity inspection would be necessary to determine that the installation conforms to the data used. Then the FAA airworthiness certification can proceed.