TECHNICAL AREAS OF RESEARCH

In 1990, the United States Congress authorized the FAA to award grants in three distinct areas. These three areas, summarized below, are administered by the FAA Office Logistics Division, ACT-50 as the Aviation Research Grants Program.

 Aviation Security Research supports the development and implementation of new technologies, procedures, and equipment to counteract terrorist acts against aviation. Catastrophic Failure Prevention encourages the development of technologies and methods that can assess risk and prevent the defects that can cause the catastrophic failure of aircraft

Aviation Research Grants

supports research in areas necessary for the long-term growth of civil aviation. Specific research areas include air traffic control automation, aviation applications of advanced technologies, human factors in highly automated environments, and aircraft safety.

The FAA has identified the following technical areas of research for which it is particularly interested in receiving proposals. These areas are crucial to the FAA's overall mission of ensuring aviation security, capacity, efficiency, and safety. They also coincide with the eight broad program areas identified in the FAA RE&D Plan, which encompasses

  • Aviation and System Security Technology
  • Human Factors and Aviation Medicine
  • Environment and Energy
  • Aircraft Safety Technology
  • Airports
  • Communications, Navigation and Surveillance
  • Aviation Weather
  • Capacity and Air Traffic Control Technology
  • Systems Science/Operations Research

EXAMPLES OF GRANT AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. Development of a dripless bubbler with Iowa State University that provides immersion quality ultrasonic inspections for commercial aircraft.


2. Development of a high-speed tomography explosive detection system