PERFORMANCE-BASED CERTIFICATION AS A DRIVER OF INNOVATION IN AIRCRAFT DESIGN

Abstract

The transition from CS-23 Amendment 4 to CS-23 Amendment 5 introduced a fundamental change in the philosophy of airworthiness certification, replacing a prescriptive framework based on predefined technical solutions with a performance-based approach centered on high-level safety objectives. This transformation reduced reliance on prescriptive regulatory requirements and increased flexibility for integrating emerging technologies, including electric propulsion systems, fly-by-wire architectures, distributed propulsion concepts, and digital engineering methods. At the same time, the burden of demonstrating means of compliance shifted significantly from regulatory authorities to applicants. The study analyzes the key principles introduced by CS-23 Amendment 5, including the separation of safety objectives from technical implementation methods, the integration of industry consensus standards, aircraft-level safety assessment, risk-based certification approaches, and the Level of Involvement (LOI) framework. Particular attention is paid to the challenges faced by design organizations with limited certification heritage. The paper examines the Ukrainian context, where intensive development of unmanned aerial systems has generated practical experience in rapid design cycles, digital engineering tools, autonomous systems, and advanced aircraft technologies. The transfer of this experience to future civil general aviation projects may create additional certification challenges, as newly established organizations are frequently assigned conservative DOA performance assessments, leading to increased regulatory involvement. The potential application of Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) as a supporting digital methodology is investigated. KBE enables the formalization of engineering knowledge, the automation of design procedures, the generation of structured compliance evidence, and improved traceability throughout the development process. The study demonstrates that integrating KBE principles with model-based engineering approaches may support organizational maturity and reduce certification complexity in a risk-based regulatory environment.