Parts manufacture authority
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PMA manufacturers are licensed by the FAA to manufacture replacement parts for aircraft to be used instead of original sourced or issued (OEM) parts. PMA manufacturers are subject to FAA regulations in the way the part is designed (often reverse engineered from an OEM part), tested, approved, manufactured, documented and sold.
PMA manufacturers originated in the USA after WWII as a result of a large number of old military airplanes sold to the civilian market which required parts. The manufacturers had largely ceased production and operators relied on scavenging parts from written off or parted out aircraft as well as PMA parts being manufactured.
The PMA market expanded greatly in the 1980s as airlines sought to reduce the costs of spares by finding alternative sources of parts. This has been a significant economic threat to OEMs who had always relied on selling new products cheaply and recouping costs through aftermarket spares sales. In recent years OEMs have entered in to partnerships with PMA suppliers to offset their development costs and to avoid competing on lower value components.
