DIN EN 9300-003:2012-12

Companies within the aerospace industry need to keep data to fulfil business, certification and legal requirements. For modern definitions this data is usually digital. These requirements lead to requirements which shall be considered regarding the retention of digital data: amongst others, how can be ensured that digital data is not altered and is also readable in the future. In this context the aerospace industry requirements shall be taken into account. Currently, for CAD software, the period between versions is of the order of 6 months to 12 months, while between generations is of the order of 3 years to10 years. This should be compared to an aircraft life cycle which may be 30 years to 50 years or longer. For digital data, the challenge is that the data are often stored in a proprietary, native format and will most likely become not interpretable after a time. The use of a neutral archiving data format safeguards the interpretability of the stored data for a much longer time, perhaps for the entire retention period. EN 9300 recommends the use of standard formats for long term archiving rather than native formats, accompanied by regular and frequent migrations of storage media and, if necessary, of data format. Because a data migration may lead to data loss, usually time stamps and digital signatures shall be renewed. The use of auditable archiving and retrieval processes ensures the data readability and integrity within current and future systems. DIN EN 9300-003 defines basic terms, for example, Long Term Archiving and Retention and identifies the context and scope of EN 9300. The section Fundamentals describes the basic concepts and approaches of EN 9300 and referenced related standards. The standards of the EN 9300 series have been prepared by ASD-STAN, Technical Section General, with the collaboration of German experts of the Aerospace Standards Committee (NL). The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) declared the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD-STAN) responsible for the preparation of European standards (EN) for the field of aerospace. The responsible German standardization committee is Working Committee NA 131-05-01 AA "Grundlagen und Managementverfahren" ("Basic principles of management processes") of the Aerospace Standards Committee at DIN.