Nick Chan

Nick Chan is the founder of Aries Aero Systems and an FAA Designated Engineering Representative authorized across Detail Design & Installation, Equipment Qualification Tests, Software (DAL A), Airborne Electronic Hardware (DAL A), Electrical Load Analysis, and Lightning/HIRF Protection. He has served as an ODA Unit Member across multiple Organization Designation Authorizations and holds active certification authority spanning 14 CFR Part 23, 25, 27, and 29 programs.

Nick is brought in where the stakes are highest. He leads complex, multi-discipline certification programs from certification planning through final compliance findings, and he is the engineer clients call when a program hits a showstopper: a stalled finding, a late-discovered compliance gap, a failed qualification test, or a means of compliance the certification authority will not accept. He diagnoses the root cause, builds a defensible path to compliance, and works it to closure with the applicant and the authority so the program keeps moving.

That judgment was built over two decades of aircraft certification and systems engineering, including more than six years in Gulfstream Aerospace's Advanced Aircraft Programs, where he rose from Technical Specialist to Principal Engineer on the GVII program. There he led the aircraft-level HIRF and Lightning test program, served as EMC Test Authorized Representative, and acted as the primary Electrical Systems Engineering Authorized Representative and ODA Unit Member. He went on to serve as Engineering Director for Aircraft Integrated Systems at Aerion Supersonic, leading the avionics, software, HIRF/Lightning, and cybersecurity certification effort for a boomless supersonic aircraft program.

Since founding Aries Aero Systems, Nick has supported certification programs across a wide range of platforms and technologies, including Part 25 OEM amended type certification, eVTOL avionics certification, military UAV software compliance (DO-178C), SATCOM and data concentrator systems, Enhanced Flight Vision Systems, and autonomous flight STC programs. He holds an M.Eng. in Systems Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University.

Today Nick leads Aries Aero Systems' certification consulting engagements and sets the technical standard applied to every engineer placed through the firm's staffing division.