Brexit schmexit: UK’s CAA to use Europe’s eVTOL certification standards

One potential disruption from the UK’s Brexit from the European Union was definitively averted this week with the nation’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announcement that it will adopt the European Aviation Safety Agency’s standards for certifying next generation electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

The CAA’s decision to stick with Special Conditions, or SC-VTOL, being used by the EU’s aviation regulator will not only facilitate eVTOL manufacturers producing aircraft in those now separated airspaces to obtain quasi-automatic certification in both – London-based Vertical Aerospace and Germany’s Volocopter, for example. It also appears likely to encourage and nurture a higher degree of triangulated harmonization of criteria between the UK, US, and Europe. 

Read: FAA-CAA cooperation on AAM lifts companies like Joby active in both markets 

Indeed, last March, the CAA and Federal Aviation Administration announced their plans to…