Bolen: Collaboration Key in Addressing FAA Reauthorization, Other Industry Priorities

Aug, 24, 2022

NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and Steve Brown, the association’s chief operating officer, shared their thoughts about some of the toughest challenges and most promising opportunities facing business aviation in an Aug. 24 webinar hosted by RTCA.

Workforce issues, sustainability, aviation safety and privacy are among NBAA’s priorities as Congress prepares to debate FAA reauthorization next year. “There will be new and different challenges,” Bolen said, including potential shifts on Capitol Hill following the midterm elections.

“I think it’s incumbent on all of us to find ways to work together so that we can ensure the FAA has the tools it needs to evolve and adapt to the rapidly changing environment,” he added.

Technology and innovation also are key focus areas, driving transformative change, and the opportunities it brings – including the ongoing development of advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles and supporting infrastructure. Bolen pointed to the work being done by NBAA’s AAM Roundtable to help develop a regulatory framework for AAM.

“We must leverage industry expertise to provide predictable, clear and understandable [guidance] that allows us to meet the requirements we can expect under the framework, and attain their goals,” he said.

Brown, who also serves as RTCA’s chairman, lauded efforts by both associations in this area. “We’re trying to get ahead of local community reaction to vehicles they’ve never seen before, [operating] in places where they’re not used to seeing them operate,” he said. “Broad public education will lead to acceptance and learning about these capabilities, rather than knee-jerk opposition to it.”

AAM also provides an example of the industry’s support for performance-based regulatory and certification standards. “The FAA has been on a performance-based journey with some very clear measures for over two decades,” Brown said. “Like any organization, they’re not perfect, but they’re making progress every year.”

“Our industry is constantly focused on getting better all the time,” Bolen added. “At the end of the day, we’re always working toward perfection and promoting an environment that allows business aviation to thrive, focuses us to be safe, secure, sustainable and innovative and to have a workforce that includes the best and the brightest.”

With Brown announcing his retirement later this year, RTCA President and CEO Terry McVenes joined Bolen in recalling his work not only at NBAA, but also the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Aeronautic Association and as the FAA’s vice president of operations planning in the early 2000s, including on 9/11.

“It’s impossible to overstate how important Steve Brown was to civil aviation through that crisis,” Bolen said. “This was a time when no one was looking to balance security against other national priorities. We needed a constant advocate for safe and secure air mobility, and our person in the room was Steve Brown – not for general aviation or business aviation, but for all aviation.”