Greg Penglis and Grok AI. December 9, 2025
INTRODUCTION:
General aviation is in crisis. It has been for decades. So when I say general aviation, I’m not talking airlines, military airplanes, or government aircraft. From the smallest, lightest ultralight aircraft, to the most expensive, luxurious, world traveling Gulfstream jet, that is general aviation. So all your Cessnas, Pipers, Beechcraft, single engine and twin propellor aircraft, plus the corporate aircraft, which include turbine engines, single and twin, the corporate and private jets. Pretty much everything that’s not airline or government aircraft.
After World War II a whole bunch of pilots returned home, and they wanted to keep flying, so an entire market of government paid for trained pilots, wanted a family aircraft to travel around in. Back then the airspace people flew in was far less complex. We didn’t have national radar coverage, most airports didn’t have a control tower, you weren’t required to file a flight plan with the FAA, you were pretty much on your own just like on the new highway system. The airplanes and their instruments were much simpler also. Basic flight and engine instruments, maybe a radio depending on where you were flying, and simple airplane systems.
The 1960’s were a great time to fly. We had a huge population of general aviation pilots flying single and twin engine prop planes all over the country. There are thousands more small airports open to general aviation airplanes compared to the 30 or so really large airports today and smaller airline regional airports. So many times it was just as convenient to take your own plane to go exactly where you wanted to go, rather than fly to a big airport and rent a car for the rest of the trip.
We had the finest general aviation system in the world. It was the least restrictive not being burdened with unnecessary regulations, the cost of fuel was low compared to Europe for example, and the skies were full of small airplanes. Learning to fly was easier too because again the training requirements, airspace, airplanes, and everything was just easier and less crowded.
The 70’s brought the OPEC oil embargoes making the price of aviation fuel skyrocket way above auto gas, that shut down a ton of recreational flying and airplanes started to be left for years at airports not being flown. Strike two was the 80’s when bogus liability lawsuits were filed against aircraft manufactures because of an accident, for an airplane that was designed 50 or more years earlier, saying the manufacturer was at fault. That was limited by Congress but the damage had been done.
Next the airplanes became far more complex, more instrumentation, more radios, and more complex systems. The airspace over the whole country became much more complex, busier, and much more FAA controlled, such that the new Private Certificate had half the training for an instrument rating 20 years previously, because flying in the new airspace was like flying on an instrument flight plan, even if you were visual.
Lastly the FAA made certifying aircraft for airworthiness certificates, something every airplane is required to both have and maintain through required changes and maintenance, they made it so complex and burdensome that certifying regular production airplanes put them on the retail market way beyond the reach of all but the richest private pilots. As the population of the country continually increased, the population of general aviation pilots dropped by the hundreds of thousands.
In response to this a new type of airplane, and airplane category came about. That is the “experimental.” This is where the pilot builds at least 51% of the airplane he wants to fly so he is liable for it, and it can’t be used for commercial operations. These got around the ridiculous rules of certified regular production aircraft, they were able to use the latest technology like carbon fiber, new types of engines, new systems, and they probably got the “glass cockpits” which are computer screen instrument panels, long before the factory aircraft because they were bogged down in years of FAA certifications.
However, there was a problem. Whereas factory produced aircraft don’t have hardly a problem with manufacture in terms of safety and accidents, the same can’t be said for pilot built experimentals, which have a far higher accident and fatality rate because of problems and weaknesses of the airplane’s construction. So pilots were forced to choose between prohibitively expensive but better produced aircraft, or building their own plane for the first time with no particular building experience, and they were going to make all their first time mistakes on the plane they were going to fly. This is madness, and is no choice at all.
Europe doesn’t have this problem because they have made it far easier to certify new aircraft with new technology that make them half the weight and twice the speed, for less fuel, than our fleet of 50 year old singles and twins. And they’ve done it while increasing safety because the airplanes are so much more capable. Those airplanes are coming to the US, and they will dominate the general aviation market in the coming years.
What to do? This bill fixes our domestic general aviation market by merging the two categories of experimental and certified, and creates a new category called “Approved.” This airworthiness certificate has all of the benefits of costs, advanced technology and the freedoms of the experimental, combined with the safety of the regular production planes, because — pilots no longer have to build their own airplanes!!! The 51% build rule to qualify as experimental is abolished. This could save countless lives because pilots who want to fly will no longer be forced to spend years building a plane for which they have no expertise or skills.
Nothing in this bill stops pilots from building from scratch. What it does is removes any requirement to build anything. So all the companies now producing kits for building airplanes can keep building kits, but now they can make the whole airplanes themselves, since they already have all the expertise in designing the aircraft and building all the components, so they can now just put them all together.
This bill is designed to create a renaissance in aircraft design and production. The sooner it passes and is signed into law, the sooner we’ll get a new generation of general aviation aircraft.
A BILL:
(“The 51% Rule Repeal Act”)
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “General Aviation Freedom and Restoration Act of 2026”.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that:
(1) The requirement that an amateur build the majority of an aircraft (14 CFR § 21.191(g) and Advisory Circular 20-27G) was primarily intended to limit manufacturer liability by preventing circumvention of commercial certification, with safety benefits as a secondary outcome.
(2) Professional factory construction produces aircraft of consistently higher and more predictable quality than variable amateur construction.
(3) The general aviation manufacturing collapse of the 1980s and 1990s was driven by unlimited product liability, not by design defects.
(4) Private recreational pilots (Part 91) should have the same freedom to purchase a factory-complete aircraft as they do to buy a car, boat, or motorcycle.
(5) Multi-engine, turbine, diesel, and mogas-compatible designs have been effectively blocked from the private market by the combined effects of the 51% rule and unlimited liability.
(6) European EASA consensus standards have produced thousands of safe, factory-built aircraft at a fraction of U.S. certification cost.
SECTION 3. REPEAL OF THE 51% MAJOR PORTION RULE.
(a) Section 21.191(g) of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, is repealed.
(b) FAA Advisory Circular 20-27G and all references to “major portion” or “51% rule” in FAA orders, policy, and guidance are withdrawn.
(c) Effective 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, no person shall be required to perform any fabrication or assembly tasks on an aircraft as a condition of obtaining or operating an airworthiness certificate under part 91 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.
** (d) Section 21.191 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, is amended by removing paragraph (g) and redesignating the subsequent paragraphs accordingly.**
SECTION 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF “APPROVED AIRCRAFT” CATEGORY (PART 91 ONLY).
(a) Subpart H of part 21 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
§ 21.190 Approved Aircraft.
(a) An aircraft is eligible for a Standard airworthiness certificate in the “Approved Aircraft” category if it is operated exclusively under 14 CFR part 91 and meets industry consensus standards accepted by the Administrator.
(b) Eligible aircraft include airplanes, rotorcraft (helicopters and gyroplanes), and any other powered fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft (excluding Part 103 ultralights), including floatplanes and amphibians, powered by piston, turboprop, turbojet, diesel, or electric propulsion.
(c) Every Approved Aircraft shall be equipped with an operating angle-of-attack (AOA) indicator that provides the pilot with clear, continuous, and unambiguous stall-margin information throughout all normal phases of flight. Any AOA system that meets or exceeds the performance criteria in the latest revision of ASTM F3180 (or an FAA-accepted equivalent standard) is acceptable.
(d) Factory-complete aircraft, kit-built aircraft, or any combination thereof are equally eligible. No minimum or maximum percentage of fabrication or assembly by the end user is required.
(e) The manufacturer or kit seller shall issue a Statement of Conformity certifying compliance with the applicable consensus standards. Upon receipt of the Statement of Conformity, the FAA shall issue the Standard airworthiness certificate within 10 business days without individual aircraft inspection.
** (b) Section 21.175 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, is amended by adding at the end of paragraph (a) the following: “(4) In the Approved Aircraft category as defined in § 21.190.”**
** (c) Section 21.183 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, is amended by adding a new paragraph (k) to read as follows: “(k) Approved Aircraft. An applicant for a Standard airworthiness certificate in the Approved Aircraft category is entitled to the certificate if the aircraft meets the requirements of § 21.190, including presentation of a Statement of Conformity, and the FAA finds the aircraft is in a condition for safe operation.”**
(d) Part 91 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, is amended by adding:
§ 91.328 Approved Aircraft operating limitations.
Aircraft holding a Standard airworthiness certificate in the Approved Aircraft category are not subject to operating limitations under § 91.319 and may be operated under the same privileges as any other Standard-category aircraft under part 91.
SECTION 5. A&P AND VOCATIONAL SCHOOL PROGRAM.
Accredited Part 147 Airframe & Powerplant schools and vocational/technical aviation programs may construct aircraft from kits or plans for educational purposes. Upon completion and issuance of a Statement of Conformity, such aircraft shall receive an Approved Aircraft airworthiness certificate and may be sold by the school, with all proceeds tax-exempt when used to support the educational program.
SECTION 6. LIABILITY PROTECTION.
Section 2 of the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 (49 U.S.C. 40101 note) is amended—
(a) by striking “general aviation aircraft” and inserting “general aviation aircraft and Approved Aircraft under 14 U.S.C. § 21.190”; and
(b) by striking “18 years” and inserting “10 years” with respect to aircraft certified under consensus standards pursuant to this Act.
(c) No insurer may impose an automatic premium differential solely because an Approved Aircraft originated as a kit rather than factory-complete, provided it meets the same consensus standards.
SECTION 7. TAX INCENTIVES FOR PRIVATE PILOTS.
(a) Section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to allow a deduction for the cost of acquiring, maintaining, and operating an Approved Aircraft used primarily for non-commercial purposes under part 91, up to $100,000 annually.
(b) Aviation gasoline (avgas) is permanently exempt from the federal excise tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. § 4081.
SECTION 8. PILOT PRIVILEGES AND ENDORSEMENTS.
Approved Aircraft may be flown by any private, recreational, or sport pilot holding appropriate logbook endorsements (complex, high-performance, tailwheel, multi-engine, turbine, etc.). No arbitrary limits on weight, speed, or number of seats apply.
SECTION 9. TRANSITION OF EXISTING AIRCRAFT.
All aircraft currently holding Experimental Amateur-Built or Experimental Light-Sport airworthiness certificates may, upon application and payment of a nominal administrative fee, be re-issued a Standard – Approved Aircraft airworthiness certificate.
SECTION 10. IMPLEMENTATION.
Not later than 180 days after enactment, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall—
(1) publish an Advisory Circular listing accepted consensus standards; and
(2) establish an online registry for submission of Statements of Conformity and issuance of airworthiness certificates.
SECTION 11. SEVERABILITY; EFFECTIVE DATE.
If any provision of this Act is held invalid, the remainder shall continue in effect. This Act takes effect 180 days after the date of enactment.
ENDORSEMENTS:
BILL STATUS:
COMMENTS: