"Mary Shafer" wrote...

The "Administrator" has no authority over the military or public aircraft,
only civil aviation.

This is no longer entirely true. Within the past few years, the FAA
acquired jurisdiction over public aircraft used primarily for the
transport of personnel on a commuter- or charter-like basis. I think
it took a couple of accidents involving planes full of pax to do this.

That is, the NASA KingAirs that haul managers around have to be
maintained and operated to FAA standards. Actually, Dryden got the
FAA to accept the NASA maintenance standards as conforming to FAA
requirements. The operations and pilot licensure issues were minor
compared to that.

On the other hand, Dryden is still flying F-18s with maintenence and
pilots entirely unchecked by the FAA. Those pilots don't even have
FAA medical certificates, just NASA ones.


The FAA certainly has authority over military "aviation" -- flight OPERATIONS,
even if it does not have total authority over military or public AIRCRAFT.

In 14 CFR 61, the language (sometimes clearly, sometimes not so clearly)
differentiates between "civil aircraft," "public aircraft," and the requirements
of the pilots flying them. For example, 61.3(a) specifically says a "Pilot
Certificate" is required to pilot a "civil aircraft" -- public aircraft are
specifically excepted. While 61.3(c)(1) requires a "Medical Certificate" for
operation of "an aircraft" (with certain exceptions delineated in 61.3(c)(2)),
it also allows for "other documentation acceptable to the Administrator." It is
entirely possible NASA and the military services have had their medical
certificates deemed as "acceptable to the Administrator."

In 14 CFR 91, however, "the operation of aircraft" -- which includes both civil
and public aircraft -- is explicitly included in 91.1(a).