08/01/2013 8130.21H
5-1
Chapter 5. Electronic Use of the Authorized Release Certificate,
FAA Form 8130-3, Airworthiness Approval Tag
5-1. Purpose of This Chapter. This chapter provides guidance on the acceptance and use of
the electronic exchange of FAA Form 8130-3, for those entities that elect to comply with the
required standards and guidance that governs the use of such electronic documentation for
aircraft products and articles.
5-2. Background on Electronic FAA Form 8130-3.
a. The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), Public Law 105-277,
Title XVII, and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign),
Public Law 106-229, encourage use of electronic signatures.
b. Before the enactment of E-Sign on June 30, 2000, the regulations on signatures
acknowledging satisfaction of manufacturing and maintenance requirements did not reflect
current advances in information storage and retrieval technology. These earlier rules were
developed when use of electronic media for the storage and retrieval of data was neither
available to, nor contemplated by, the aviation industry or the FAA.
c. As the complexity of aircraft design, manufacturing, and maintenance processes
increased, the number of records and documents generated and required to be retained
by aircraft manufacturers, owners, operators, and repair facilities expanded dramatically.
Electronic information storage and retrieval systems have enhanced significantly the aviation
industry’s ability not only to meet FAA record-retention requirements, but also to manufacture,
operate, and maintain today’s highly complex aircraft and aircraft systems in a demanding
operational environment.
d. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Executive Office of the President,
has issued OMB Circular A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources.
OMB Circular A-130 directs the FAA and other Government agencies to recognize the
limitations on electronic recordkeeping systems due to restrictions on the use of electronic
signatures. The FAA recognizes this limitation and will now permit the use of electronic
signatures on the electronic FAA Form 8130-3. Manufacturers, owners, operators, and
maintenance personnel may now use complete electronic recordkeeping systems because the
requirement to authenticate documents with non-electronic signatures has been eliminated.
Such systems may be used to generate FAA Form 8130-3 that can be properly authenticated
with an electronic signature.
e. As a result of the above (GPEA, enactment of E-Sign, and OMB Circular A-130),
the FAA and industry formed the Electronic Documentation Project Team (EDPT) to develop
an industry specification to enable the electronic exchange of FAA Form 8130-3 for aircraft
products and articles. The requirements contained in this chapter for the use of the electronic
version of FAA Form 8130-3 and the specifications contained in ATA Spec 2000 are the
direct result of the efforts put forth by that team. Not only were the requirements of
FAA Form 8130-3 developed, but corresponding forms used by other authorities (for example,
EASA or Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA)) were considered.