Doing DASR

The Defence Aviation Safety Regulation aligns Australia with an emerging global convention on military airworthiness used by around 30 other nations. One year since being implemented the benefits are considerable.

According to the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal ‘Leo’ Davies it is a “seminal moment” in the organisation’s history. He of all people should know, but to outsiders the notion of a change of airworthiness regulations is a little esoteric. Air Force has seen the arrival of new platforms such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; the EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft; and the P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, among others, so how important can a change of regulations possibly be? Game changing as it turns out.

To understand the magnitude of the changes, and the considerable significance and benefits, it is probably best to start at the beginning, over one hundred years ago. When a new recruit called Tom White crashed his Boxkite into a hangar at Point Cook in 1914, it marked the beginning of the journey of military airworthiness in Australia. During both world wars around 10 per cent of recruits died during training, and due to the chaos of war there can be no accurate estimate of how many combat losses may have been due to airframe and engine failures.