The Federal Aviation Administration has accepted a new set of industry standards that will allow manufacturers to begin certifying larger and more capable light-sport aircraft under the agency's MOSAIC rules.
The decision gives aircraft makers an FAA-approved way to show that new airplanes, gliders, powered-lift aircraft and gyroplanes meet the design and production requirements that take effect on July 24, 2026. Without those standards, manufacturers had the new regulations but lacked the detailed compliance framework needed to certify aircraft under them.
What the FAA accepted
The agency accepted four ASTM International integration standards as a means of compliance with the new Part 22 airworthiness rules, which took effect on July 16. ASTM's F37 committee organised each integration standard around a package of more detailed requirements covering areas such as aircraft structures, flight characteristics, landing gear, engines, propellers, fuel and electrical systems, installed equipment and occupant protection.
The packages also include requirements for production testing, quality assurance, maintenance programmes and continued operational safety. Some aircraft may need to meet additional standards for night flight, instrument operations, water operations or certain aerial-work missions.
The move removes one of the final obstacles to the aircraft-certification portion of MOSAIC, short for Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification.
How MOSAIC changes the category
The FAA finalised the rule in July 2025. Changes affecting sport pilots and light-sport repairmen took effect in October 2025, meaning the pilot-side reforms have already been in place for some months while the aircraft-side framework caught up.
MOSAIC replaces several rigid limits from the original light-sport rules with performance-based requirements. The rule opens the category to aircraft with as many as four seats and allows designs with retractable landing gear, constant-speed propellers and a wider range of propulsion systems.
The FAA also removed the 1,320-pound maximum takeoff weight for landplanes. Aircraft must instead meet limits based largely on stall speed, maximum level-flight speed and other performance characteristics.
That weight change is the structural shift in the rule. The old 1,320-pound ceiling was a blunt constraint that dictated design choices well beyond weight itself, forcing compromises in structure, payload and equipment. Replacing it with stall-speed and level-flight-speed limits ties the category to the handling characteristics that actually govern how demanding an aircraft is to fly, rather than to a single number on a scale.
What it means for manufacturers
The change gives manufacturers room to develop light-sport aircraft with greater payload, range and utility than most aircraft built under the original rules. In practical terms, it opens the door to four-seat designs with retractable gear and constant-speed propellers entering a category that previously topped out well short of that.
The FAA's acceptance does not approve any individual aircraft. Each manufacturer must still design and test its aircraft, follow the applicable standards, maintain a production-quality system and submit a statement of compliance before the FAA issues an airworthiness certificate. The agency also accepted only the specific versions of the standards it reviewed.
For the general aviation market, the significance is less about any single aircraft than about the certification route itself. A performance-based framework with an accepted compliance path gives smaller manufacturers a realistic way to bring capable aircraft to market without the cost and duration of a full type certification programme.
Sources: AeroTime, FAA. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
Comments
Loading comments…