FAA Production Certificate — 14 CFR Part 21 Subpart G
- Record: quality-reliability-reg-003 — FAA Production Certificate, 14 CFR Part 21 Subpart G
- Issuing body / enforcer: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Aircraft Certification Service
- Jurisdiction: United States — production of aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, and parts under FAA design approvals
- Record type / importance: regulation / license
- Last verified: 2026-09-30
What it is
The FAA's production-approval regime: a Production Certificate (PC) authorizes a manufacturer to produce duplicates of an FAA-approved design (type certificate, STC, PMA, TSOA) under an FAA-approved quality system. Without it (or an alternative production approval — PMA, TSO authorization), you may hold a brilliant aircraft design and still be legally unable to manufacture it for sale. Subpart G sets the quality-system requirements; it is the U.S. production-side counterpart to the design-side type certification process.
Scope: who/what it applies to, triggers, thresholds
- Applicants/holders producing aircraft, engines, propellers, and articles under an FAA design approval. Covers the prime and extends to suppliers through the PC holder's supplier-control obligations.
- Trigger: manufacturing type-certificated products or articles for installation on them. Prototypes and experimental articles have separate paths; production for sale needs the approval.
- Related approvals: Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA, Subpart K) and TSO Authorization (Subpart O) are alternative production approvals for parts and TSO articles, each with quality-system requirements scaled to scope.
Key requirements and compliance obligations
- Quality system (§ 21.137): documented system covering design data control, supplier control, manufacturing processes, inspection and testing, calibration, nonconforming-material control, corrective action, handling/storage, and — added in the 2009/2011 rulemakings — safety management elements and continued-airworthiness processes.
- Quality manual (§ 21.138): the FAA-approved description of the system; changes require FAA acceptance.
- Supplier control: the PC holder is responsible for supplier quality — audits, flow-down of design data, receiving inspection — the mechanism by which FAA production discipline reaches the supply chain.
- Conformity and airworthiness: each product/article must conform to its approved design and be in condition for safe operation; the PC holder issues airworthiness approvals (Form 8130-3) for articles.
- FAA oversight: Manufacturing Inspection District Offices conduct audits and can witness production; noncompliance can trigger certificate action.
Penalties and consequences
- Certificate action: suspension or revocation of the Production Certificate — production stops. Civil penalties under 49 U.S.C. § 46301 (per-violation, inflation-adjusted). Knowing violations can draw criminal referral. Commercially, loss of PC status ends OEM production programs.
Version/edition status and LIVE changes (verified 2026-09-30)
- Part 21 Subpart G requirements are regulation — stable text, amended by rulemaking. No Subpart G rewrite underway as of Sept 2026.
- Live context: FAA's post-737 MAX oversight posture (2019–2026) materially intensified production oversight — expanded audits, production-rate scrutiny, and the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act's directives on manufacturing oversight. For suppliers, the practical change is audit intensity and documentation expectations, not rule text. The 2024 Reauthorization also pushed FAA on workforce and certification-process timelines — relevant to approval throughput, not to Subpart G substance.
- Note the relationship to AS9100: most PC holders maintain AS9100 certification as the commercial QMS layer, with the FAA quality system as the regulatory layer — they overlap heavily but answer to different masters.
Related certifications (Quality/Reliability flagship/license)
- ASQ CQE (quality-reliability-cert-001), CQA (quality-reliability-cert-003): quality engineering and audit competence underpinning the § 21.137 quality system.
- No catalogue certification is FAA-production-specific.
Honest flags
- Audit-intensity characterizations reflect post-MAX industry reporting, not FAA-published metrics. The 2024 Reauthorization Act's specific production-oversight provisions were not itemized here — verify against the Act text for detailed reliance.
Original ETS reference writing, verified against public sources on 2026-09-30. Thin sourcing is flagged inline. Not legal advice — confirm current editions with the issuing body.