Billy Nolen, who joined the FAA in January to head up aviation safety, will serve as acting administrator once Steve Dickson departs at the end of March.
The VSR700 demonstrator has undertaken the first at-sea trials of its autonomous take-off and landing capabilities as part of a French navy/DGA program.
A safety management system seems difficult to implement for smaller Part 91 operators, but it can be more manageable when viewed in "bite-size" chunks.