2120-Critical Parts for Airplane Propellers

Department of Transportation

Federal Aviation Administration

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Critical Parts for Airplane Propellers

2120-XXXX

A. Justification

1. Circumstances that make collection of information necessary.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is amending the airworthiness standards for airplane propellers. This action would define what a propeller critical part is, require the identification of propeller critical parts by the manufacturer, and establish engineering, manufacture, and maintenance processes for those parts. These processes will be required to be recorded and maintained within company manuals. The intended effect of this rule is to ensure the continued airworthiness of propeller critical parts by requiring a system of processes to identify and manage these parts throughout their service life. Adopting this rule would eliminate regulatory differences between part 35 and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) propeller critical parts requirements, thereby simplifying airworthiness approvals for exports.

This information collection supports the Department of Transportation’s strategic goal of safety.

2. How, by whom, and for what purpose is the information used.

The required manual updates will be used by the propeller manufacturer to show compliance with the propeller critical parts requirements.

3. Extent of automated information collection.

The manuals may be maintained as hard copies and/or electronically.

4. Efforts to identify duplication.

We have established that some manufacturers already have this information and have used it to show compliance with EASA requirements. The FAA Critical Parts rule 35.16 is equivalent to the EASA Critical Parts rule CS-P 160 therefore, any manufacturer that has shown compliance with EASA CS-P 160 will not need additional information.

5. Efforts to minimize the burden on small businesses.

There will not be a significant impact on small businesses.

6. Impact of less frequent collection of information.

The information will only need to be collected once to show compliance with the FAA Propeller Critical part rule §35.16. If the information is not collected the propeller manufacturer will not be able to obtain a Type Certificate for the propeller.

7. Special circumstances.

There are no special circumstances.

8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8:

A notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2011, vol. 76, no. 231, pages 74749-74753.

A 60-day notice for public comments on the Paperwork Reduction Act requirements for this collection was published in the Federal Register on January 28, 2013, vol. 78, no. 18, pages 5859-5860. No comments were received.

9. Payments or gifts to respondents.

There are no gifts to respondents.

10. Assurance of confidentiality:

No assurances of confidentiality are made.

11. Justification for collection of sensitive information:

There are no questions of a sensitive nature associated with this rule.

12. Estimate of burden hours for information requested:

There are three U.S. companies who manufacture critical parts for airplane propellers and will be required, by this final rule, to update manuals. There would be a one-time requirement to update manuals. Industry has informed the FAA that the one-time paperwork requirement will take approximately 40 hours and consist of 18 pages per manufacturer. The FAA estimated 120 hours as the total hourly burden by taking the product of the number of affected U.S. manufacturers with the hourly burden.

13. Estimate of total annual costs to respondents.

There will be a one-time cost of $3,555.60 per respondent which will occur at the effective date of the rule. The total cost for the three respondents is $10,666.80.

14. Estimate of cost to the Federal government.

This final rule will add no costs to the Federal government.

15. Explanation of program changes or adjustments.
This is a new collection, therefore it is a program change.

16. Publication of results of data collection.

None of the information collected will be published out side of an internal proprietary company manual.

17. Approval for not displaying the expiration date of OMB approval.

We are not requesting approval to not display the expiration date.

18. Exceptions to certification statement.

There are no exceptions.

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