[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 116 (Monday, June 19, 2017)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 27771-27773]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-12617]
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Rules and Regulations
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains regulatory documents
having general applicability and legal effect, most of which are keyed
to and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is published
under 50 titles pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 1510.
The Code of Federal Regulations is sold by the Superintendent of Documents.
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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 116 / Monday, June 19, 2017 / Rules
and Regulations
[[Page 27771]]
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
14 CFR Part 25
[Docket No. FAA-2017-0240; Special Conditions No. 25-691-SC]
Special Conditions: Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation GVII-G500;
Airbag Systems on Multiple-Place and Single-Place Side-Facing Seats
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Final special conditions; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: These special conditions are issued for the Gulfstream
Aerospace Corporation (Gulfstream) GVII-G500 airplane. This airplane
will have a novel or unusual design feature when compared to the state
of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for transport-
category airplanes. This design feature is airbag systems on multiple-
place and single-place side-facing seats. The applicable airworthiness
regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for
this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional
safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to
establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the
existing airworthiness standards.
DATES: This action is effective on Gulfstream on June 19, 2017. We must
receive your comments by August 3, 2017.
ADDRESSES: Send comments identified by docket number FAA-2017-0240
using any of the following methods:
Federal eRegulations Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/and follow the online instructions for sending your
comments electronically.
Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30, U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room
W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket
Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200
New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations at 202-493-2251.
Privacy: The FAA will post all comments it receives, without
change, to http://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal
information the commenter provides. Using the search function of the
docket Web site, anyone can find and read the electronic form of all
comments received into any FAA docket, including the name of the
individual sending the comment (or signing the comment for an
association, business, labor union, etc.). DOT's complete Privacy Act
Statement can be found in the Federal Register published on April 11,
2000 (65 FR 19477-19478), as well as at http://DocketsInfo.dot.gov/ gov/.
Docket: Background documents or comments received may be read at
http://www.regulations.gov/ at any time. Follow the online instructions
for accessing the docket or go to Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of
the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alan Sinclair, FAA, Airframe and Cabin
Safety, ANM-115, Transport Airplane Directorate, Aircraft Certification
Service, 1601 Lind Avenue SW., Renton, Washington 98057-3356; telephone
425-227-2195; facsimile 425-227-1320.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FAA has determined that notice of, and
opportunity for prior public comment on, these special conditions is
impracticable because the substance of these special conditions has
been subject to the public comment process in several prior instances
with no substantive comments received. The FAA therefore finds that
good cause exists for making these special conditions effective upon
publication in the Federal Register.
Comments Invited
We invite interested people to take part in this rulemaking by
sending written comments, data, or views. The most helpful comments
reference a specific portion of the special conditions, explain the
reason for any recommended change, and include supporting data.
We will consider all comments we receive by the closing date for
comments. We may change these special conditions based on the comments
we receive.
Background
On March 29, 2012, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation applied for a
type certificate for their new Model GVII-G500 airplane. The Model
GVII-G500 airplane will be a twin-engine, transport-category business
jet capable of accommodating up to 19 passengers. The Model GVII-G500
airplane will have a maximum takeoff weight of 76,850 lbs.
Type Certification Basis
Under Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) 21.17,
Gulfstream must show that the Model GVII-G500 airplane meets the
applicable provisions of 14 CFR part 25, as amended by Amendments 25-1
through 25-129.
If the Administrator finds that the applicable airworthiness
regulations (i.e., part 25) do not contain adequate or appropriate
safety standards for the Model GVII-G500 airplane because of a novel or
unusual design feature, special conditions are prescribed under the
provisions of Sec. 21.16.
Special conditions are initially applicable to the model for which
they are issued. Should the type certificate for that model be amended
later to include any other model that incorporates the same or similar
novel or unusual design feature, the special conditions would also
apply to the other model under Sec. 21.101.
In addition to the applicable airworthiness regulations and special
conditions, Model GVII-G500 airplanes must comply with the fuel-vent
and exhaust-emission requirements of 14 CFR part 34, and the noise-
certification requirements of 14 CFR part 36. The FAA must issue a
finding of regulatory adequacy under Sec. 611 of Public Law 92-574,
the ``Noise Control Act of 1972.''
[[Page 27772]]
The FAA issues special conditions, as defined in 14 CFR 11.19, in
accordance with Sec. 11.38, and they become part of the type
certification basis under Sec. 21.17(a)(2).
Novel or Unusual Design Feature
The Model GVII-G500 airplane will incorporate the following novel
or unusual design feature:
Airbag systems on multiple-place and single-place side-facing
seats.
Discussion
Side facing seats are considered a novel design for transport-
category airplanes that include 14 CFR part 25, Amendment 25-64, in
their certification bases, because this feature was not anticipated
when those airworthiness standards were issued. Therefore, the existing
regulations do not provide adequate or appropriate safety standards for
occupants of side-facing seats. For the Model GVII-G500 airplane, FAA
Special Conditions No. 25-618-SC, ``Technical Criteria for Approving
Side-Facing Seats,'' proposed special conditions to address the
certification of single- and multiple-place side-facing seats. Those
proposed special conditions include condition 2(e), which requires the
axial rotation of the upper leg (femur) to be limited to 35 degrees in
either direction from the nominal seat position. To accommodate that
requirement, Gulfstream has developed a new airbag system that will be
installed close to the floor, and which is designed to limit the axial
rotation of the occupant's upper legs.
These special conditions contain the additional safety standards
that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of
safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness
standards.
Applicability
As discussed above, these special conditions are applicable to the
Gulfstream Model GVII-G500 airplane. Should Gulfstream apply at a later
date for a change to the type certificate to include another model
incorporating the same novel or unusual design feature, these special
conditions would apply to that model as well.
Conclusion
This action affects only certain novel or unusual design features
on one model of airplane. It is not a rule of general applicability.
The substance of these special conditions has been subjected to the
notice and comment period in several prior instances and has been
derived without substantive change from those previously issued. It is
unlikely that prior public comment would result in a significant change
from the substance contained herein. Therefore, the FAA has determined
that prior public notice and comment are unnecessary and impracticable,
and good cause exists for adopting these special conditions upon
publication in the Federal Register. The FAA is requesting comments to
allow interested persons to submit views that may not have been
submitted in response to the prior opportunities for comment described
above.
List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 25
Aircraft, Aviation safety, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements.
The authority citation for these special conditions is as follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701, 44702, 44704.
The Special Conditions
Accordingly, pursuant to the authority delegated to me by the
Administrator, the following special conditions are issued as part of
the type certification basis for Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation Model
GVII-G500 airplanes.
In addition to the requirements of Sec. Sec. 25.562 and 25.785,
and Special Conditions No. 25-495-SC, the following special conditions
are part of the type certification basis for the Gulfstream Model GVII-
G500 airplane with leg-flail airbags installed on side-facing seats.
1. For seats with a leg-flail airbag system, the system must deploy
and provide protection under crash conditions where it is necessary to
prevent serious injury. The means of protection must take into
consideration a range of stature from a 2-year-old child to a 95th-
percentile male. At some buttock popliteal length and effective seat-
bottom depth, the lower legs will not be able to form a 90-degree angle
relative to the upper leg; at this point, the lower leg flail would not
occur. The leg-flail airbag system must provide a consistent approach
to prevention of leg flail throughout that range of occupants whose
lower legs can form a 90-degree angle relative to the upper legs when
seated upright in the seat. Items that need to be considered include,
but are not limited to, the range of occupants' popliteal height, the
range of occupants' buttock popliteal length, the design of the seat
effective height above the floor, and the effective depth of the seat-
bottom cushion.
2. The leg-flail airbag system must provide adequate protection for
each occupant regardless of the number of occupants of the seat
assembly, considering that unoccupied seats may have an active leg-
flail airbag system.
3. The leg-flail airbag system must not be susceptible to
inadvertent deployment as a result of wear and tear, or inertial loads
resulting from in-flight or ground maneuvers (including gusts and hard
landings), and other operating and environmental conditions
(vibrations, moisture, etc.) likely to occur in service.
4. Deployment of the leg-flail airbag system must not introduce
injury mechanisms to the seated occupant, nor result in injuries that
could impede rapid egress.
5. Inadvertent deployment of the leg-flail airbag system, during
the most critical part of the flight, must either meet the requirement
of Sec. 25.1309(b), or not cause a hazard to the airplane or its
occupants.
6. The leg-flail airbag system must not impede rapid egress of
occupants from the airplane 10 seconds after airbag deployment.
7. The leg-flail airbag system must be protected from lightning and
high-intensity radiated fields (HIRF). The threats to the airplane
specified in existing regulations regarding lightning (Sec. 25.1316)
and HIRF (Sec. 25.1317) are incorporated by reference for the purpose
of measuring lightning and HIRF protection.
8. The leg-flail airbag system must function properly after loss of
normal airplane electrical power, and after a transverse separation of
the fuselage at the most critical location. A separation at the
location of the leg-flail airbag system does not have to be considered.
9. The leg-flail airbag system must not release hazardous
quantities of gas or particulate matter into the cabin.
10. The leg-flail airbag system installation must be protected from
the effects of fire such that no hazard to occupants will result.
11. A means must be available to verify the integrity of the leg-
flail airbag system's activation system prior to each flight, or the
leg-flail airbag system's activation system must reliably operate
between inspection intervals. The FAA considers that the loss of the
leg-flail airbag system's deployment function alone (i.e., independent
of the conditional event that requires the leg-flail airbag system's
deployment) is a major-failure condition.
12. The airbag inflatable material may not have an average burn
rate of greater than 2.5 inches per minute when tested using the
horizontal flammability test defined in part 25, appendix F, part I,
paragraph (b)(5).
[[Page 27773]]
13. The leg-flail airbag system, once deployed, must not adversely
affect the emergency-lighting system (i.e., must not block floor-
proximity lights to the extent that the lights no longer meet their
intended function).
Issued in Renton, Washington, on June 8, 2017.
Michael Kaszycki,
Assistant Manager, Transport Airplane Directorate, Aircraft
Certification Service.
[FR Doc. 2017-12617 Filed 6-16-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P