Leon, I do not think that the two would knit naturally together anyway at first. For a start the CAA is funded by the operators and licensees while the MAA would be funded by the government. On the other hand, a cross fertilisation of personnel and good practice between the two would ensure the return of much of the expertise and knowledge to Military Regulation so ruthlessly driven out of military airworthiness maintenance and provision.
As to who would be the DG, I'm afraid that the RAF has rather shot itself in the foot in that regard. Once its VSOs had targeted the Air Safety budgets, subverted the regs, and ordered subordinates to suborn them into the bargain, they have rather forfeited any expectation of being allowed the opportunity to repeat such pillage. You might respond that it was all some thirty odd years ago and times change, but as tuc reminds us it is still policy that such orders were acceptable and that disobeying them is still an offence. The cover up continues and hence perpetuates the crime.
Maybe in years to come an arrangement such as you propose might emerge after the reform we seek has changed hearts and minds. An important factor would be that the personnel should be semi permanent. A lot of the problems at the MOD seem to stem from the constant comings and goings into posts that require far more than 2-3 years experience. That is why I suggest the formation of a new Air Safety Branch so that whether you are civilian or Service, you understand the system intimately and thus would be aware of its fragility and the importance of preventing its subversion again.
Re the Regs, they never were the problem. All that was necessary was to implement them. That they weren't has cost some 70 lives accounted for in airworthiness related fatal air accident threads in this forum alone.
Finally, it's a bit rich to try to pin any blame on the Coroners for not bringing the MOD to heel. Other than telling the RAF that "There's something wrong with your bloody aircraft" or words to that effect, as famously stated by the Oxford Coroner, it is for the UK Military Air Regulator to ensure that it is not so. That it chose instead to mislead and dissemble to them instead is a comment on the MOD and not the Coroners!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 26th Mar 2017 at 22:21.