Definition
A category of FAA airworthiness certificate issued for an aircraft that has not yet received a standard type certificate, allowing limited operations for specific purposes such as flight testing, market surveys, crew training, or demonstration while certification is still being completed.
Plain English
A temporary airworthiness certificate that lets an aircraft fly for restricted purposes before it has been fully approved for normal use.
Context Anchor
Seen when reading about airworthiness certificates, especially certificates that allow an aircraft to operate before final certification is complete.
Derivation
From the Latin 'providere,' meaning 'to provide for' or 'to foresee.' In English, 'provisional' came to mean 'arranged for the present, with the expectation of being replaced.' That fits exactly here: a provisional certificate covers the aircraft for now, until the permanent (standard) certificate is issued.
Why Pilots Care
An aircraft on a provisional airworthiness certificate cannot be operated like a standard-category aircraft. Flights are limited to specific approved purposes, so pilots must know what operations are and are not permitted before flying it.
Intuition Check
Do not read provisional as meaning “almost the same as permanent.” In this context, it means temporary, conditional, and limited by the FAA.
Example Sentence 1
The manufacturer operated the new airliner under a provisional airworthiness certificate while completing the final stages of FAA type certification.
Example Sentence 2
The operator used the provisional certificate to ferry the newly built aircraft across the country for final inspection.