Aviation Law and Regulation

Understanding the law and regulation is part of the syllabus to become a licensed engineer. I have included a video giving the historical perspective of the aviation laws.

The first international conference on Civil Aviation was held in Paris in 1919 where one of the item agreed was the authority of the country on its air space. As the number of aircraft and the international flights increased, the main concerns were on the safety and the international co operations between nations. The worlds had witnessed a fast development of aircraft during the second world war. When the war ended, there was high number of idle aircraft that were made available for commercial usage.

In 1944, USA took the lead and invited the nations for a conference in Chicago.This had led to the creation of an international body to regulate the international aviation. Among the agenda of the discussion and the subsequent agreements were:

- the sovereignty of the individual state.

- the exchange of the commercial rights leading to the developments of the documents "Freedom of the Air".

- Tariff and custom rights of the contracting states. The foreign aircraft has to land at the first port of landing at a "custom airport" where the immigration formality are carried out. With the European Union, the requirements are removed.

- The rules on taxation - There is no tax for fuel and oils and technical parts used on the aircraft.
- Marking and registration of aircraft - aircraft have to carry the national markings and the registration marking. Even how the markings to be displayed were agreed.
- Aircraft has to carry a list of documents - they are.. the certificate of airworthiness, crew licenses, load sheet, certificate of registration, radio license and aircraft log book.

The aviation law and regulations are enforced by the individual contracting states based on the agreed terms of the ICAO. There were a number of subsequent conferences that changes some of the terms and references.