(b) “Aeronautics” means:

(2) the operation, construction, repair, or maintenance of aircraft, aircraft power plants and accessories, including the repair, packing, and maintenance of parachutes;

(3) the design, establishment, construction, extension, operation, improvement, repair, or maintenance of airports, landing fields, or other air navigation facilities; and

(4) air instruction.

     (c) “Aircraft” means any contrivance used or designed for navigation of or flight in the air.

     (d) “Public aircraft” means an aircraft used exclusively in the service of any government or of any political subdivision of a government, including the government of any state but not including any government owned aircraft engaged in carrying persons or property for commercial purposes.

     (e) “Civil aircraft” means any aircraft other than a public aircraft.

     (f) “Airport” means any location either on land or water which is used for the landing and taking off of aircraft.

     (g) “Department” refers to the Indiana department of transportation.

     (h) “Landing field” means any airport which provides neither facilities nor services other than an area designated for the landing and taking off of aircraft.

     (i) “Air navigation facility” means any facility other than one owned or controlled by the federal government, used in, available for use in, or designed for use in aid of air navigation, including:

(1) airports;

(2) landing fields;

(3) any structures, mechanisms, lights, beacons, marks, communicating systems, or other instrumentalities or devices used or useful as an aid, or constituting an advantage or convenience, to the safe taking-off, navigation, and landing of aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an airport or landing field; and

(4) any combination of any or all of such facilities.

     (j) “Air navigation” means the operation or navigation of aircraft in the air space over this state, or upon any airport or landing field within this state.

     (k) “Operation of aircraft” or “operate aircraft” means the use of aircraft for the purpose of air navigation, and includes the navigation or piloting of aircraft. Any person who causes or authorizes the operation of aircraft, whether with or without the right of legal control (in the capacity of owner, lessee, or otherwise) of the aircraft, is considered to be engaged in the operation of aircraft within the meaning of the Indiana statutes.

     (l) “Airman” means any individual who engages, as the person in command, or as pilot, mechanic, or member of the crew, in the navigation of aircraft while under way and (excepting individuals employed outside the United States, any individual employed outside the United States, any individual employed by a manufacturer of aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances to perform duties as inspector or mechanic in connection with the manufacturer’s aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances, and any individual performing inspection or mechanical duties in connection with aircraft owned or operated by the individual) any individual who is directly in charge of the inspection, maintenance, overhauling, or repair of aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances and any individual who serves in the capacity of aircraft dispatcher or air-traffic control-tower operator.

     (m) “Air instruction” means the imparting of aeronautical information by any aeronautics instructor or in or by any air school or flying club.

     (n) “Air school” means any person engaged in giving, or offering to give, instruction in aeronautics, either in flying or ground subjects, or both, for or without hire or reward, and advertising, representing, or professing to give or offer to give such instruction.

     (o) “Aeronautics instructor” means an individual engaged in giving instruction, or offering to give instruction, in aeronautics, either in flying or ground subjects, or both, for hire or reward, without advertising such occupation, without calling the individual’s facilities an air school or anything equivalent thereto, and without employing or using other instructors.

     (p) “Flying club” means any person other than an individual, which, neither for profit nor reward, owns, leases, or uses one (1) or more aircraft for the purpose of instruction or pleasure, or both.

     (q) “Person” means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, limited liability company, association, joint stock association, or body politic. The term includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or other similar representative.

     (r) “State airway” means a route in the navigable air space over and above the lands or water of Indiana designated by the department as a route suitable for air navigation.

     (s) “Navigable air space” means air space above the minimum altitudes of flight prescribed by Indiana laws or by rules of the department consistent with Indiana laws.

     (t) “Municipality” means any county, city, or town of Indiana and any other political subdivision, public corporation, authority, or district in Indiana which is or may be authorized by law to acquire, establish, construct, maintain, improve, and operate airports and other air navigation facilities.

     (u) “Airport protection privileges” means easements through or other interests in air space over land or water, interests in airport hazards outside the boundaries of airports or landing fields, and other protection privileges, the acquisition or control of which is necessary to ensure safe approaches to the landing areas of the airports and landing fields and the safe and efficient operation of airports and landing fields.

     (v) “Airport hazard” means any structure, object of natural growth, or use of land, which obstructs the air space required for the flight of aircraft in landing or taking off at any airport or landing field or is otherwise hazardous to such landing or taking off.

     (w) “CAB-certificated air carrier” means an air carrier which is operating under a valid certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Civil Aeronautics Board under Public Law 85-726, Title VI, Aug. 23, 1958, 72 Stat. 754, 49 U.S.C. § 1371 as amended.

     (x) “Adverse impact on military operations and readiness” has the meaning set forth in 32 C.F.R. § 211.3.

     (y) “Energy facility” means any structure that provides for the generation or transmission of electrical energy.

Formerly: Acts 1945, c.360, s.1; Acts 1963, c.229, s.1; Acts 1975, P.L.93, SEC.1. As amended by Acts 1980, P.L.74, SEC.308; P.L.3-1989, SEC.69; P.L.18-1990, SEC.154; P.L.8-1993, SEC.147; P.L.136-2018, SEC.98; P.L.71-2020, SEC.1.