[cremp]

What happens most of the time with the big companies (Boeing, Cessna, Bombardier...) is that it is cheaper to have an in-house DER (Designated Engineering Representative) for the part of the aircraft that they are certifying. DERs themselves

You have Mechanical DERs, Electrical DERs, Software DERs, and others.

A good example for the HN crowd, the Software DER. Per regulations, the software standard is the DO-178B. The DER isn't actually spinning up the dev environment, or building the piece of software used; just checking to make sure the process was followed. (the dev environment was documented, what dependancies...) These people are a step up from code reviewers and just check paperwork more than software.

The FAA itself isn't concerned with safety; it is just there to make sure there is a papertrail to follow in the event of a safety issue.

[dv_dt]

I think that's a rewriting of the role of the FAA. A papertrail is a strong prerequisite to being able to adequately review the safety of an aircraft. Without strict conformance to both complete written instructions on how to build, assemble, and configure an aircraft, how would one ever know a plane, no matter how many tests you do is the same design that is later flown vs what was certified?

BTW when the plan was floated to let Boeing self certify more in the process, in the name of 'efficiency' there were objections made to the political appointees driving that.