On March 10 Sino Swearingen received from the FAA type inspection authorizations (TIA) for systems and high-speed upsets. TIA authorization for the FAA certification process is the approval from the FAA to move to the next phase of testing for the items passed.
Sino Swearingen president and CEO Dr. Carl Chen noted, “Now that all of our critical high-speed flight testing is finished, such as Vd dive testing to Mach .90 and stall speeds at 91 knots, we are aggressively finishing the additional flight testing required for FAA certification. This is a significant and major milestone in that process. Over two years ago we projected certification for the second half of this year, and we are on time and on schedule to meet that deadline.” [According to the March 2003 edition of AIN (page 68), however, Sino Swearingen said then that it was expecting certification in the fourth quarter of 2003, about two years earlier than Chen’s current “on time and on schedule” projection for certification of an airplane whose gestation through various versions and under various proprietors has spanned three calendar decades (the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s).–Ed.]
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