2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XIV - Public Ways and Works › Chapter 90 - Motor Vehicles and Aircraft › Section 35 - Definitions Applicable to Secs. 35 to 52

Section 35. The following words and phrases used in sections thirty-five to fifty-two, inclusive, shall have the following meanings, unless a different meaning is clearly apparent from the language or context, or unless such construction is inconsistent with the manifest intention of the general court:—
(a) ''Aeronautics'', transportation by aircraft; the operation, construction, repair or maintenance of aircraft, aircraft power plants and accessories; the repair, packing and maintenance of parachutes; the design, establishment, construction, extension, operation, improvement, repair or maintenance of airports, restricted landing areas or other air navigation facilities; and instruction in flying or ground subjects pertaining thereto.
(b) ''Aircraft'', any contrivance now known, or hereafter invented, used or designed for navigation of or flight in the air.
(c) ''Public aircraft'', an aircraft used exclusively in the service of any government or of any political subdivision thereof, including the government of any state, territory or possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia, but not including any government-owned aircraft engaged in carrying persons or property for commercial purposes.
(d) ''Civil aircraft'', any aircraft other than a public aircraft.
(e) ''Airport'', any area of land or water other than a restricted landing area, which is used, or intended for use, for the landing and take-off of aircraft, and any appurtenant areas which are used, or intended for use, for airport buildings or other airport facilities or rights-of-way, together with all airport buildings and facilities located thereon.
(f) ''Restricted landing area'', any area of land or water other than an airport which is used, or is made available, for the landing and take-off of aircraft; provided, that the use of such an area may be restricted from time to time by the commission.
(g) ''Airport hazard'', any structure, object of natural growth, or use of land which obstructs the air space required for the flight of aircraft in landing or taking off at an airport or restricted landing area, or is otherwise hazardous to such landing or taking off.
(h) ''Air navigation facility'', any facility, other than one owned or controlled by the federal government, used in, available for use in, or designed for use in, aid of air navigation, including airports, restricted landing areas, and any structures, mechanisms, lights, beacons, markers, communicating systems, or other instrumentalities, or devices used or useful as an aid, or constituting an advantage or convenience, to the safe taking off, navigation and landing of aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an airport or restricted landing area, and any combination of any or all of such facilities.
(i) ''Airman'', any person who engages, as the person in command, or as pilot, mechanic or member of the crew, in the navigation of aircraft while under way, and any person who is directly in charge of the inspection, maintenance, overhauling or repair of aircraft engines, propellers or appliances, and any person who serves in the capacity of aircraft dispatcher or air-traffic control-tower operator; but does not include any person employed outside the United States, or any person employed by a manufacturer of aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers or appliances, to perform duties as inspector or mechanic in connection therewith, or any person performing inspection or mechanical duties in connection with aircraft owned or operated by him.
(j) ''Operation of aircraft'' or ''operate aircraft'', the use, navigation or piloting of aircraft in the air space over this commonwealth or upon any airport within this commonwealth. Any person who causes or authorizes the operation of aircraft, whether with or without the right of legal control, in the capacity of owner, lessee or otherwise, of the aircraft, shall be deemed to be engaged in the operation of aircraft.
(k) ''Aeronautics instructor'', any person who for hire or reward engages in giving instructions or offering to give instruction in flying or ground subjects pertaining thereto; but does not include any instructor in a public school, university or institution of higher learning duly accredited and approved for carrying on collegiate work, who instructs in flying, or ground subjects pertaining thereto, only in the performance of his duties at such school, university or institution.
(l) ''Air school'', (1) any aeronautics instructor who advertises, represents or holds himself out as giving or offering to give instruction in flying or ground subjects pertaining thereto; and (2) any person who advertises, represents or holds himself out as giving or offering to give instruction in flying or ground subjects pertaining thereto, whether for or without hire or reward; but does not include any public school or university or institution of higher learning duly accredited and approved for carrying on collegiate work.
(m) ''Commission'', the Massachusetts aeronautics division.
(n) ''Director'', administrator for aeronautics.
(o) ''Person'', any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association; and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee or other similar representative thereof.
(p) ''Navigable air space'', air space above the minimum safe altitudes of flight prescribed by regulation by the commission. Such navigable air space shall be subject to a public right of air navigation in conformity with the provisions of said sections and with the regulations and air traffic rules issued by the commission.
(q) ''Dealer in aircraft'' or ''aircraft dealer'', any person who engages in a business a substantial part of which consists of the manufacture, sale, or exchange of aircraft.