- MASPS
- Minimum Aviation System Performance Specifications, for example an FAA MASPS specifies that weather information for the local region (50 miles radius or more) is continuously transmitted at least every five minutes
- NASA
- National Aeronautics & Space Administration
- NextGen
- NEXT GENeration air transportation system, a project to integrate aircraft, airports and air traffic control to accommodate much higher volumes of air travelers/traffic in the future.
- ODA
- Organizational Delegation Authority, similar to an ACO but is an airworthiness office within a company (such as Boeing) that has delegation authority.
- Order
- An Order is a way for the FAA to address regulatory concerns in a quick but global way. Regulatory changes to the CFARs (code of Federal Aviation Regulations) take a long time and have to go through lots of steps. An Order has a specific impact to a smaller audience and is used for changes to a technology area or specific topic. Example Order 8110.CEH.
- PHAC
- Plan for Hardware Aspects of Certification, the main plan document required by DO-254. The other plans include Quality Assurance Plan, Configuration Management Plan, Hardware Development Plan, Hardware Verification Plan and Hardware Standards.
- PSAC
- Plan for Software Aspects of Certification, the main plan document required by DO-178B.
- PSSA
- Preliminary System Safety Assessment. See also SSA.
- RMA
- Rate Monotonic Analysis, is a simple, practical mathematically sound way to guarantee schedulability in real-time systems
- RTCA
- Radio Technical Committee on Aeronautics, a private, not-for-profit corporation that develops consensus-based recommendations regarding communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system issues. RTCA functions as a Federal Advisory Committee. Its recommendations are used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the basis for policy, program, and regulatory decisions and by the private sector as the basis for development, investment and other business decisions.