The National Airworthiness Authority (NAA) is the government statutory authority in each country that oversees the approval and regulation of civil aviation, in particular aircraft airworthiness.
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Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, NAA's typically regulate the following critical aspects of aircraft and their operation:
Depending of the legal system of the parent country, the NAA will derive it power for an act of Parliament (such as the Civil or Federal Aviation Act), and is then empowered to make regulations within the bounds of the act. This allows technical aspects of airworthiness to be dealt with by subject matter experts and not politicians.[1][2]
The NAA may also be involved in the investigation of aircraft accidents, although in many cases this is left to a separate body (such as the ATSB in Australia or the NTSB in the USA), to allow independent review of regulatory oversight.[3].
The NAA will regulate the control of air traffic but a separate agency will generally carry out Air Traffic Control functions.
The independent development of NAAs has resulted in differing regulations in country to country. This has required aircraft manufacturers in the past to develop differing models for specific NAA requirements (such as the BAe Jetstream 31), and difficulty for airlines to travel into foreign jurisdictions. In an effort to resolve these issues, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) was signed in 1944. This then led to the establishment by the United Nations established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1947 which now oversees member states and works to implement regulatory changes to ensure best practice regulations are adopted[4].
For a comprehensive list refer to the List of Civil Aviation Authorities, most of whom are NAAs.
The civil aviation authority of a country is the national body governing civil aviation. In many countries, it is simply known as the Civil Aviation Authority, but this is not universally the case. For example, the national civil aviation authority of the United States is the Federal Aviation Administration and that of Australia is known as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. International coordination of these bodies is undertaken by the UN organisation ICAO.
These authorities regulate civil aviation activities in their countries. Amongst their diverse responsibilities are licencing pilots, registering aircraft, and certifying aircraft and engine designs as safe for use. They ensure that aircraft and aviation facilities are maintained to a standard sufficient for safe operation.
In some cases there is a division between the CAA (the regulatory agency) and the ANSP (the Air Navigation Service Provider). An example of a regional regulator is European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Cooperation among ANSPs is made via Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO).
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), is the publicly-owned organisation in charge of flying (Aviation) in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1972, doing the tasks previously done by the Department of Transport.
This means it is in charge of:
The CAA no longer provides air traffic control services (ATC), this responsibility was passed to a private company called National Air Traffic Services (NATS) in 2001 which the government owns 49% of.
Some other duties have passed to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), such as type certification (Saying if a certain type of plane is safe or not).
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