Assurance regime; jurisdiction US

Aircraft certification

Delegation of certification to the regulated firm's own staff (ODA) is the closest analogue to labs running their own safety cases. The 737 MAX reforms show delegation can be reclaimed.

Path signature

M mandate T trigger M mandate S standards D delegation T trigger I independence

Similarity of its opening to frontier AI: 0.22 (matched opening MTMSDTI)

Stages reached

Voluntary	not reached
Trigger	1956
Mandate	1926
Standards	1965
Oversight	not reached
Independence	2020
Access	not reached

Mechanisms

	Before reform	Now
pays	A	A
selects	A	R
access	deep	deep
publishes	none	summary
oversees	regulator	regulator

Delegated certification staff now approved by the FAA after 2020.

Payer, access, publication

Who pays. Manufacturer pays for certification work, much of it delegated to its own employees.
Access. Regulator has statutory access; delegation reduces what it inspects directly.
Publication. Type certificates public; findings largely internal.

Milestones

Year	Kind	Event	Strength	Harm
1926	mandate	Air Commerce Act: federal certification of aircraft and pilots.	3		source
1956	trigger	Grand Canyon mid-air collision.		deaths: 128 deaths	source
1958	mandate	Federal Aviation Act creates the FAA.	3		source
1965	standards	Federal Aviation Regulations codified.	2		source
2005	delegation	Organization Designation Authorization lets manufacturers' employees perform certification work.			source
2018	trigger	Boeing 737 MAX crashes (2018, 2019).		deaths: 346 deaths across two crashes	source
2020	delegation reform	Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act: FAA approval of ODA unit members, expanded whistleblower protection, limits on delegation.	3		source

seed; secondary sources; verify each milestone against a primary source before citing in the paper Data: data/industries/aviation.json