You know that feeling of unfamiliarity you get when you drive a car that isn’t your own,
or type on a keyboard of someone else’s computer?
When it comes to pilots operating aircraft,
its a feeling that should never exist. And it’s quote-unquote ‘type
ratings’ that ensure commonality and familiarity between different aircraft.
To be more specific, a type rating is an additional qualification given
to pilots to show which aircraft types and variants they are allowed to fly.
These are important for pilots, as well as manufacturers and airline operators.
Manufacturers usually strive to keep ratings the same between types and the key to this is
demonstrating sufficient similarity in pilot familiarity and operation.
So, in this video, let’s look at type ratings and the aircraft covered by the same ratings.
Different aircraft types have many differences in operation and handling performance. For example,
Boeing commercial aircraft are controlled by yokes, while Airbus jets use sidesticks.
A pilot trained to fly the Boeing 737 cannot instantly start flying the Airbus A320. This,
of course, makes sense. He or she would need to take additional training,
resulting in the issuance of a type rating for the new
type. This training involves lengthy classroom study and simulator time.
Where it gets more complicated is between similar aircraft types.
Several aircraft types share the same type rating. This means
that flying them is technically similar, and performance-wise, they mostly handle the same.
Pilots will need additional short training to understand specific differences,
but not the full training of an entirely new type rating.
Aircraft can be very different technically, but if they have enough
commonality in how they appear and handle for pilots, they can share a type rating.
This is how long-running aircraft series share a type rating between all variants
despite significant technical improvements over multiple decades…
Common type ratings are decided by each country's civil aviation
authority (the FAA in the US, and the EASA in Europe, for example).
These national bodies follow the same ICAO guidelines, but there can be differences.
Commonality in type ratings is a very important part of airline operations and fleet management.
Airlines will, of course, need a pool of pilots for each aircraft
type they operate. This also becomes an important
decision in which future aircraft to purchase and how to maintain the fleet.
Quite a few airlines around the world, including Southwest Airlines, easyJet,
and airBaltic operate single-type fleets, making it easier for crew scheduling.
So, if we get to the main topic of today’s video, which aircraft share the same rating? Well,
the following are some of the main groupings for current commercial jets.
Let’s first start off with the Boeing 737 family of aircraft - one of the
most popular commercial jets in the world - and one where cockpit commonality and type
rating have become fairly relevant issues for all the wrong reasons.
All members of the Boeing 737 family (including the Original, Classic, Next Generation,
and MAX series) share the same type rating. This has been a major advantage for Boeing, with a
family of aircraft that has been flying since the late 1960s, all under the same type rating.
Conversion training is required to move between
series, but this is often just short classroom-based difference training.
We won’t go over the details of Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis as you’re likely already
familiar with it. However, we will say that the crisis was partially caused
by the manufacturer’s goal of having cockpit commonality and minimal new
training for pilots ‘type rated’ for previous generations of 737s.
In 2022 Boeing faced a major issue with this 737-type commonality. Both
the smallest and largest MAX family members, the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10,
respectively, have been undergoing flight testing toward regulator certification.
In response to the MAX crisis of 2019 and 2020, the US government mandated
new cockpit alerting systems be installed on any new aircraft certified after 2022.
This put Boeing in a tough spot - with a chance of having a different cockpit in
its MAX 7 and MAX 10 than compared to the MAX 8 and MAX 9 airframes.
Positions and opinions in the industry were mixed: While it’s hard to advocate
against the addition of new features that would make an aircraft safer,
having cockpit commonality was also a safety concern as well.
In fact, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association or SWAPA went public in
October 2022 to request that the MAX 7 and MAX 10 models receive a waiver
from the government's new requirement to have the new alerting system installed.
Lobbying in favor of retaining cockpit commonality, the association stated:
“Our pilots fly many cycles in a day. Some of our pilots can touch three or four,
even five, aircraft in a day. … The commonality is our issue,
and we believe that it makes for a safer operation.”
Ultimately, Boeing would get a waiver in order to have its MAX 7 and MAX
10 aircraft retain the same cockpit as the other MAX family members. However,
the new expectation for Boeing is that all MAX aircraft are to be fitted with the new
alerting system within at least three years of the MAX 10 getting certified.
While this new mandate will be a massive undertaking - likely to be
on a global scale - it will ensure that cockpit commonality is preserved for all 737 MAX aircraft.
If we move away from the Boeing 737 family and look at its rival,
we can see that the A320 family of aircraft all have the same type rating.
Indeed, Airbus has designed the A320 and A320neo series to share a common type rating.
As with the 737, there is usually a short conversion training between variants,
but the A319, A320 and A321 all share the same rating.
Of course, it should be made clear that the Airbus A220 has a separate
type rating. This is to be expected, as the aircraft was designed completely separately
and was originally the Bombardier CSeries before being rebranded as the Airbus A220.
At the same time, we can say that the A220-100 and the A220-300 share a common type rating.
When it comes to Embraer’s regional jets, the Brazilian manufacturer has managed to keep the
whole of the E-Jet series under the same rating. The E170, E175, E190, E195, and the E2 Series
aircraft will all have the same type rating. Some different training will be required to
move from the E-Jet to the E2, but Embraer claims that this training takes just 2 and a half days!
When it comes to Boeing widebodies, the only Boeing widebody aircraft to share a
type rating everywhere are the Boeing 767 and Boeing 757. These two aircraft were designed
with the same cockpit and with similar handling characteristics, and thus share a type rating.
The situation is a bit more complex with the Boeing 777 and the Boeing
787. Under US FAA regulations, these have two separate type ratings. However, in Europe,
EASA considers them common enough to allow a shared type rating.
As for the upcoming Boeing 777X, it is now expected that this aircraft will share
the same type rating as the 777. Despite major new innovations such as new engines,
folding wingtips, and heads-up displays,
Boeing expects enough cockpit and handling overlap to allow the same type rating.
The Boeing 747, unsurprisingly, has its own type rating,
although the latest 747-8 shares the same type rating as the Boeing 747-400.
For Airbus widebodies, there are three separate type ratings.
The four-engine Airbus A380 and the Airbus A340 each have their own type
rating. There is another type rating shared by the twin-engine Airbus A330 and A350.
This means that A330 pilots can fly the A350 with just a minimal conversion.
For the move to other types, a new rating would be required.
This can usually be completed quickly as there are significant cockpit similarities with Airbus
aircraft. In particular, the A330 and A340 require minimal conversion. This is unsurprising as the
two aircraft were designed together as a good way to lower the cost of developing the less
demanded A340. According to a discussion on airliners.net, conversion training from
the A330 to A340 can take just four days, with an Airbus Cross crew qualification, or CCQ for short.
Did you know that type ratings aren’t just applicable to pilots?
While type ratings are mostly associated with flight crew,
cabin crew are also type-rated for certain aircraft - sometimes holding up to three or four.
Airlines that operate a mixed fleet and a mix of widebody and narrowbody aircraft
for maximum operations often have crew members certified to perform duty on multiple aircraft.
Like pilots, cabin crew are also required to go through aircraft-specific type
training and conversion course before serving on an aircraft.
The airline is responsible for such training, and if it does not have its own facility,
it can be contracted out to a cabin crew training organization.
Cabins of different aircraft types are also configured differently,
and a thorough knowledge of these aspects is crucial for flight safety.
Cabin crew conversion training covers areas like door operations, slides and rafts, emergency
equipment, communications, oxygen systems, and locations of equipment on the aircraft type.
After all, along with pilots, cabin crew plays a vital role in making operations safe!
So, to wrap things up, type ratings are important in many areas.
They affect the ways airline manage their fleets and schedule operations,
manufacturers' ability to sell aircraft, and pilots' ability to do their job safely.
Did you know about type ratings before watching this video?
Do you know anyone type rated for both Boeing AND Airbus aircraft? Let us know by leaving a comment!