I have had the oportunity to deal with a number of the AMA officials and can say that they do not play any favours. They are however sticky and with good reason with regard to inadequate/incomplete documentation. Especialy when they change distributor and sub suppliers several times in the process. It is up to the applicant to get these in order and in good time. The rules by with the T-500 was approved has been around for a while. Modifications that claim improved performance in thrust, regardless of RPM increase/decrease can be accepted without the obligatory destruct test. This being up to the AMA comitee. Changes to quality levels and other non-structural changes is allowed at any time. The destruct test has been revised such that if the ECU fails and the pump/battery combo will not allow an overspeed failure that is acceptable. Our BMT120KS settles at 138K until the typical max fuel load of 5 litres run out or the battery dumps at the high load under these conditions when submitted to test. Simultaneously this approval also warrants legacy BMT80's to be recertified to 120N using our new compressor.
I have been told by sources close to the commitee that many applicants submit data which is wholy inadequate and are non-responsive when asked for supplement data. Typically this process does not take more than 4-6 weeks. Our own application was delayed almost a year due to my busy schedule preventing my submitting suplelemental data and not due to any laxness of the AMA safety comitee.
The success of FJ and Top Gun suggest a professional person at work, perhaps why the AMA approval was timeous and complete in his case.
Andre Baird