Airworthiness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Airworthiness is a term used to dictate whether an aircraft is worthy of safe flight. It is illegal in most countries to fly an aircraft without first obtaining an airworthiness certificate from the responsible government agency. The airworthiness usually must be maintained by a program of inspections by an authorized aircraft mechanic, typically performed annually, or after a fixed elapsed flight time, such as every 100 hours.

One notable example of an aircraft that was not legally airworthy is Larry Walters' "Lawn chair flight." on July 2, 1982 in a homemade "aircraft" he called Inspiration I