A comparison of SAE ARP 4754A and ARP 4754

Abstract

SAE ARP 4754 has been widely applied in the process of airworthiness certification in highly-integrated or complex electronic system of civil aircraft since 1996. But with the complexity of integration and function increasing in the system design process, the standard can not fully meets the state-of-art technical requirements of designer and engineers. Hence the new version SAE ARP 4754A arises in December 2010, which mainly revises the part of development assurance level allocation, provids a methodology to assign the correct development assurance levels. In order to better understand and apply ARP 4754A in the field of airworthiness and safety, this paper will compare SAE ARP 4754A and 4754 on aspects of applicable scope, development process and integral process, etc, expecting to make clear the differences and carry on analysis about the differences to show the significances of the changes for civil aircraft airworthiness and safety.