About Us
The Airport Technology Research and Development Branch supports the FAA’s mission by conducting the necessary research and development required to enhance the safety of operations at our nation’s airports and to ensure the adequacy of engineering specifications and standards in all areas of the airport systems and, where necessary, develop data to support new standards.
With the implementation of new procedures from the NextGen research, the role of airports will be to accommodate the increased traffic safely. This is especially critical during aircraft operations in inclement weather. The increased traffic will necessitate efficient inspection and maintenance of our runways and taxiways. This will require development of technologies to heat airport pavements, reliable methods to assess the braking performance of aircraft, development of lighting and marking materials providing higher visibility, development of new lighting technologies, such as, holograms, developing methods to mitigate wildlife at or near the airport, and developing new and efficient techniques for aircraft rescue and fire fighting.
List of Research Program Areas (RPA)
SAFETY RPA's
RPA S1 – Airport Planning and Design
S1.1 - Runway Simulator
S1.2 - Capacity Simulation
S1.3 - Runway Incursion Mitigation (RIM) Program/Airfield Geometry
S1.4 - Trapezoidal Groove Testing and Design
RPA S2 – Airport Safety Data Mining
RPA S3 – Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting
S3.1 - ARFF Technologies
S3.2 - Composite Material Fire fighting
S3.3 - New Large Aircraft Fire fighting
RPA S4 – Wildlife Hazard Mitigation
S4.1 - Habitat Management
S4.2 - Wildlife Strike and Surveillance Data
S4.3 - Detection and Deterrent Technologies
RPA S5 – Visual Guidance
S5.1 - Signs, Lights and Markings
S5.2 - NAS Visual Aids
S5.3 - Heliport/Vertiport Visual Aids
RPA S6 – Runway Surface Safety Technology
S6.1 - Aircraft Braking
S6.2 - Airport Winter Safety and Operations
S6.3 - Aircraft Arrestor Systems
S6.4 - FOD Detection Systems
S6.5 - Airport R&D Aircraft Support
RPA S7 – Airport Safety and Surveillance Sensors
S7.1 - Low Cost Surveillance
S7.2 - Emerging Sensor Technologies
S7.3 - Airport Perimeter Security
RPA S8 – Noise Programs
RPA S9 – Airport Research Taxiway
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PAVEMENT RPA's
RPA P1 – NAPTF
P1.1 - Pavement Construction
P1.2 - Facility Operation
P1.3 - Facility Maintenance
RPA P2 – NAPMRC
P2.1 - Pavement Construction
P2.2 - Facility Operation
RPA P3 – Field Instrumentation & Testing
RPA P4 – Advanced Materials
P4.1 - Heated Pavements
P4.2 - Geosynthetics
RPA P5 – Pavement Design and Evaluation
P5.1 - Design Improvements
P5.2 - ACN/PCN Improvements
P5.3 - Analysis
RPA P6 – NDT Technology
RPA P7 – Software Program Development & Support
RPA P8 – Extended Pavement Life
RPA E1 – Airport Environmental Research
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