FAA Publishes Order 8130.2M, Updating Airworthiness Certification Guidance to Implement MOSAIC Rule
Why It MattersCertification guidance now follows the MOSAIC rule's restructuring of light-sport, restricted and experimental categories, so inspectors, kit builders and former-military aircraft owners work from one rewritten rulebook instead of separate policy memoranda.
What happened
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has published Order 8130.2M, which sets out updated guidance for the airworthiness certification of aircraft. The FAA states that the revision implements related provisions of the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) final rule, which amended Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR), Parts 1, 21, 22, 36, 43, 45, 61, 65, 91, and 119.
The order changes guidance on the design, manufacture, certification, operation, maintenance and alteration of light-sport category aircraft. It also changes guidance on special purpose operations for restricted category aircraft, and on the duration of experimental airworthiness certificates for showing compliance with regulations, research and development, crew training and market survey. Eligible purposes for experimental aircraft now include a new one: operating former-military aircraft under § 21.191(j). The order further covers operating limitations in 14 CFR Part 91 for light-sport and restricted category aircraft.
Other significant changes include new definitions of "space support vehicle" and "space support vehicle flight," and removal of the acronyms "ELSA" and "SLSA" throughout the order to align with the removal of the light-sport aircraft definition in § 1.1. Chapters 9 and 17 have been rewritten to align with the new rules for light-sport category aircraft and for experimental kit-built and former light-sport category aircraft, respectively. A new Chapter 18 covers the former-military experimental purpose under § 21.191(j), and most operating limitations in appendix D, Table D-1 have been revised.
Order 8130.2M cancels FAA Order 8130.2L, Airworthiness Certification of Aircraft, dated 01/30/2026, along with all clarification, deviation and policy memorandums issued for Order 8130.2 before the new order's effective date. Users are advised to review the complete revision to ensure compliance with the new requirements.
Industry impact & what to watch
The order shows how a rule change reaches daily practice: the MOSAIC final rule rewrote the regulations, and the FAA's order is the document that tells certification staff and applicants how those regulations are applied case by case. Rewriting whole chapters and most of the operating-limitation table, rather than patching them, signals that the old light-sport framework, built around a separate aircraft definition, no longer anchors the guidance.
For the segments touched, the effect is practical. Light-sport and restricted category aircraft, kit-built experimentals, and former-military aircraft each now have their own revised chapter or table to work from. The addition of space support vehicle definitions also indicates that special airworthiness guidance is being extended toward launch-related activity.
Because the order cancels every earlier clarification, deviation and policy memorandum issued for Order 8130.2, any working practice that relied on one of those documents has to be checked against the new text. The effective date of the order is the point from which that cancellation takes hold.
