[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 220 (Wednesday, November 16, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69623-69624]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-22651]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Proposed Advisory Circular 25-17A Revision, Transport Airplane 
Cabin Interiors Crashworthiness Handbook

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration, DOT.

ACTION:  Notice of availability of proposed advisory circular (AC) 25-
17A revision and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the availability of and requests 
comments on a proposed advisory circular (AC) revision that sets forth 
acceptable methods of compliance with Title 14, Code of Federal 
Regulations (14 CFR), part 25, concerning the crashworthiness 
requirements as applied to cabin interiors. Like all ACs, it is not 
regulatory but provides guidance for applicants in demonstrating 
compliance with the objective safety standards set forth in part 25. 
This notice is necessary to give all interested persons an opportunity 
to present their views on the proposed AC.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 16, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Send all comments on the proposed AC to: Federal Aviation 
Administration, Attention: Jayson Claar, Airframe/Cabin Safety, ANM-
115, Transport Airplane Directorate, Aircraft Certification Service, 
1601 Lind Avenue SW, Renton, WA 98055-4056. Comments may be inspected 
at the above address between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays, except 
Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jayson Claar at telephone number 425-
227-2194; fax number 425-227-1232.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Comments Invited

    Interested persons are invited to comment on the proposed AC 
revision by submitting such written data, views, or arguments, as they 
may desire. Commenters should identify AC 25-17A and submit comments, 
in duplicate, to the address specified above. The Transport Airplane 
Directorate will consider all communications received on or before the 
closing date for comments before issuing the final AC. The proposed AC 
revision can be found and downloaded from the Internet at http://www.airweb.faa.gov/rgl under ``Draft Advisory Circulars.'' A paper copy 
or a CD ROM (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) of the proposed AC may be 
obtained by contacting the person named above under the caption FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Because of the large size of this proposed 
AC (approximately 860 pages) and the time necessary for copying the 
document, expect extra time for fulfilling requests for paper copies.

Discussion

    The proposed AC 25-17A revision contains guidance pertinent to the 
cabin safety and crashworthiness type certification requirements of 
part 25 as amended by Amendments 25-1 through 25-112. Previously, two 
ACs on this subject have been available to the public:
    <bullet> AC 25-17 was issued on 7/15/91. It covers Amendments 25-1 
through 25-59.
    <bullet> A proposed AC 25-17A revision was published on 10/7/99, 
for public comment. Itcovered Amendments 25-1 through 25-70. That 
revision was never issued as a final document.
    Several commentors to the 1999 draft revision requested that the 
format of the AC bechanged to repeat the complete regulatory text and 
all of the applicable guidance material at eachamendment level. The FAA 
agrees with those commentors and has revised the format of thisproposed 
revision to the AC to implement that change. This change, however, 
significantlyincreases the size of this document.
    The formats of the current version of the AC issued in 1991, and 
the 1999 proposedrevision presented the entire regulatory text and 
applicable guidance only when any regulatorysection is first included 
in the AC. For subsequent

[[Page 69624]]

amendments to the section, only the revisedrule text and additional 
guidance was included. Therefore, when looking for all the 
guidancerelated to a regulatory section at a recent amendment level, 
the reader must go through all of theamendment levels for that section. 
The same applies to determining the entire text for any regulatory 
section, e.g., Sec.  25.807.
    Therefore, this proposed AC 25-17A revision provides, for each 
crashworthiness section,the complete regulatory text and associated 
guidance for each relevant amendment, inchronological order. Those 
paragraphs changed by the amendment are enclosed within [ ]. Atthe end 
of each guidance paragraph, the first applicable amendment level is 
given within ( ).
    Including the complete regulation at each amendment level; all of 
the guidance materialat each amendment level, including guidance from 
Amendments 25-1 through 25-112; and all of the new appendices, results 
in the document increasing to about 860 pages. The existing AC 25-17 
includes guidance from Amendments 25-1 through 25-59 (approximately 
one-half thenumber of amendments) and is 198 pages. Compared with the 
total size of this proposedAC 25-17A revision, the amount of changes is 
very small.
    To assist in reviewing the proposed AC, the FAA identifies the 
additions/changes madeto the guidance by highlighting the text changes 
the first time they appear. The baseline foridentifying the changes to 
the guidance is the existing AC 25-17, dated 7/15/91. Theadditions/
changes are broken down into four categories, each represented in a 
different highlightcolor. Minor changes to improve clarity, 
understanding, and grammar are not highlighted.
    The categories and colors are:
    <bullet> Yellow highlight text (Yellow highlight)--Additions/
changes to the guidance included inthe 1999 version of the AC that was 
published for comment AND the changes made asthe result of public 
comments received on that draft AC.
    <bullet> Green highlight text--Additions/changes to the guidance 
that havebeen through the FAA policy development process.
    <bullet> Blue highlight text--Additions/changes to the guidance 
made as the result of a change in the regulations.
    <bullet> Purple highlight text--Additions/changes to the guidance 
that are new,and have not been through the public process.
    Reviewers of the draft AC are encouraged to focus their attention 
on the highlighted text,which represents the revised or new guidance 
compared to the existing released version of thisAC. However, if 
comments are received on guidance that is in AC 25-17, they will 
reviewed and considered as well.
    The methods and procedures described in this proposed AC revision 
have evolved over manyyears. This proposed AC revision represents one 
acceptable means, but not the only means, ofcompliance pertinent to the 
associated requirements at the indicated amendment levels.

    Issued in Renton, Washington, on November 4, 2005.
Ali Bahrami,
Manager, Transport Airplane Directorate, Aircraft Certification 
Service.
[FR Doc. 05-22651 Filed 11-15-05; 8:45 am]
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