In 1990, the United States Congress authorized the FAA to award grants and cooperative agreements for research, engineering and development activities, and an example is shown below. The program, entitled FAA Aviation Research Grants Program, is administered by the Acquisition and Grants Group.
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 capacity, efficiency, and safety.
- Capacity and Air Traffic Control Technology
- Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance
- Aviation Weather
- Airports
- Aircraft Safety Technology
- Human Factors and Aviation Medicine
- Systems Science/Operations Research
EXAMPLES OF GRANT AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- The FAA has been developing a risk assessment and risk management software for structural fatigue issues of general aviation, called SMART, that is expected to be completed and released in 2025. Thus far, the FAA has used SMART to determine the relative damage caused by different flight profiles on a family of small airplanes, and to study the effect of stress levels and usage spectra to develop a draft continued airworthiness action.
- In view of the recent problems with the design and operation of the 737MAX aircraft leading to two notorious accidents; FAA funded research that was relevant and its application would likely contribute to mitigating the flight crew challenges that were revealed in the accident investigations.
Last updated: