REDAC Subcommittee on Airports

March 3 - 4, 2020

FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center

Building 300, Directors Conference Room

Day 1: March 3, 2020

Note Taker – Susan Kaelin

• Christopher Oswald, ACI-NA Subcommittee Chairperson gave an introduction. He stated 

that a key issue was there was not an Airports Consultants Council (ACC) appointee. He 

also added that there was interest in fire testing, regulatory issues and State laws. UAS 

research was also of great interest along with detection and integration with TSA test 

sites. 

• Shelley Yak, Director of FAA Technical Center gave opening remarks. She thanked 

everyone for being there. She addressed the budget submission two fold. Research, 

Engineering and Development (RE&D) and Airports (AIP) budget needed to be more 

flexible when emerging needs and issues occur. Ms. Yak asked the attendees what the 

research drivers identified in the landscape support and what research drivers support 

it. She requested the subcommittee to take several minutes of their time to make any 

recommendations on roles and processes as it related to the R&D Landscape research 

drivers.

• John Dermody, Director, FAA Office of Airports Safety and Standards discussed ARP 

Headquarter updates and vacancies in senior management level positions. They will be 

restructuring creating two separate branches, engineers and data functions.

Budget items:

o FY19 3.2 million added- Safety & Pavement

o FY20 Bumped up by 6 million, to 39 million- Air Pavement Technology Program

o FY 21 Small plus up 1.2 million

John discussed three research requests:

1. ASDX Radar runway width

2. Cameras on approach, aircraft distances

3. Runway closure marks

• Mike Paglione, Manager, Aviation Research Division, discussed BIG DAWG to utilize 

data analytics. He mentioned external stakeholder level of interest on how Airport 

data can be of use to everyone. He has brought in experts and industry partners as 

speakers. He also discussed Computing & Analytics Shared Services Integrated 

Environment (CASSIE). 
• Chris Oswald made a motion to close Spring of 2017 & Spring of 2018 REDAC 

Recommendations. No objections. 

• Chris Oswald made motion to close Spring of 2019 recommendations. No objections.

• Chris Oswald made motion to close Fall of 2019 recommendations. No objections. 

• Chris Oswald noted that the next Airports Subcommittee meeting will be held on 

August 25-26, 2020 and March 2-3, 2021.

• Chris Oswald had concerns at the State and Government level, Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) concerns, and Congress concerns. There are some significant 

deadlines between now and October 2021. Need to wrap up some conclusions. Asked 

if the deadlines were realistic. He would like to keep the lines of communication open 

which can turn crisis into opportunity.

• Keith Bagot presented the Military Specifications (MilSpec) fire testing video. They use

non-blended MilSpec qualified products as a baseline comparison. It has different 

intensities and scales of products. Keith discussed the International Civil Aviation 

Organization (ICAO) jet fuel based testing as a nozzle on a stick with no human. They 

have five other foam fluorine-free products.

• Mike DiPilato and Jim Patterson discussed UAS research activities. 

• Chris Oswald asked for a formal risk assessment process with air traffic. 

Day 2: March 4, 2020

Note Taker – Susan Kaelin

• Christopher Oswald commented on the positive work discussed the prior day.

• Gary Mitchel recognized Big Data and the work done on it. He was concerned about 

the performance specifications for concrete.

• Joe Breen presented Solar Powered Lighting Research

• Dave Brill presented Stabilized Base R&D Research
• Jeff Gagnon did an overview of the Airport Pavement RPA’s. Discussed the New Airport 

Technology Program for FY-20, and New Research Requests.

• Navneet Garg presented Non-Nuclear Devices and State Specifications for Airport 

Pavements.

• Matthew Brynick presented Runway Roughness Index.

• Evanicio Costa asked if the pilots’ thoughts on roughness were taken into consideration.

• Jeff Gagnon noted that airports take notice when pilots express concerns. He said, “We

have “in place” roughness criteria, not just subjective. We have measurable repeatable 

standards. Cross intersections are a big problem area.”

• Dave Brill presented “Beta Overview” and discussed FAARFIELD 2.0 Beta. There are also 

slides on ACR-PCR.

• Chris Oswald would like to hear recommendations, observations, and findings regarding 

solar use.

• Frank Fee was concerned about heavier aircraft. He thought it was not logical that the 

design program doesn’t need changes and the program doesn’t recognize that.

• John Dermody discussed that the agency was not opposed to changing their standards

and to learn better technologies.

• Murphy Flynn noted that Frank’s concerns reinforce the need for the new lab. The 

“Bump up” is rolled into the recommendations.

• Chris Oswald discussed organizing an advisory group. He said he was aware of the 

significant deadlines they were under. He wanted to know how soon it would take to 

get the group together. Murphy suggested it could be within a month of the letter 

going out. Chris said they were including Boeing and Airbus.

• John Dermody noted that the FAA would reach out to organizations regarding who was 

nominated as an advisory group.
• Chris Oswald concluded that the presentations were great. He appreciated all the 

efforts to pull the materials together. He asked if the staffing support was sufficient as 

he expressed concerns about the level of contract changes and the challenges that 

would present

• Gary Mitchel brought up the extended pavement life program and requested input

• Chris Oswald wanted a current list of RPA’s. He would pull out the presentations and 

distribute them to the members. 

• Chris Oswald needs resumes for the Committee. There were outstanding members that

were not formally appointed. There can be a rotation of the members of the 

Committee. The Committee can be up to 30 members. 
Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee

PPT Briefing to Sub-committee on Airports: March 3-4, 2020

Technical Center Director’s Conference Room

Day 1: March 3, 2020

12:30 pm Christopher Oswald Introduction

ACI-NA, Subcommittee Chairperson

12:45 pm Shelley Yak Welcome and Opening Remarks

Director, FAA Technical Center

1:00 pm John Dermody HQ ARP Update

Director, FAA Office of Airports Safety and Standards

1:30 pm Mike Paglione Aviation Research Division update and 

Acting Manager, Aviation Research Division “Research of interest to Airports”

1:45 pm Michel Hovan (by phone) Airport Technology Program Update

Manager, FAA Airport Technology Research Budgets, New Contracting Avenues, Research Landscape

2:00 pm Subcommittee Members and FAA Review of Outstanding REDAC Recommendations

2:15 pm Murphy Flynn Overview of Safety & Planning Research Project Areas (RPAs)

Acting Manager, FAA Airport Safety R&D Section

2:45 pm Break

3:15 pm Subcommittee Members and FAA Focused RPA Discussions—Safety and Planning

 Alternative aircraft fire-fighting agent research

 Unmanned aircraft system research

 Solar Research Instrumentation Projects

 Runway Deviation Project

 Aircraft braking friction research

5:00 pm Adjourn

Day 2: March 4, 2020

8:30 am Subcommittee Members and FAA IOU’s from Day 1

8:45 pm Jeff Gagnon Overview of Airport Pavement RPAs

Manager, Airport Pavement R&D Section New Airport Technology Program for FY-20

New Research Requests

9:15 am Subcommittee Members and FAA Focused RPA Discussions—Airport Pavements

 Geosynthetics / Construction Cycle 9

 State Specifications for Airport Pavements

 In-place properties on unbound materials

 Stabilized Bases

 Runway Roughness Index

 FAARFIELD 2

 ACR/PCR
10:45 am Break

11:00 am Subcommittee Members Subcommittee Findings & Recommendations

12:00 am Adjourn

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Airports Subcommittee

Attendees List

March 3, 2020

Day 1

Names Names

Susan Kaelin (minutes) Chinita Roundtree-Coleman

Joe Breen Chris Oswald (phone)

David Brill Sara Hubbard (phone)

Holly Cyrus Somil Shah (phone)

John Dermody (phone)

Murphy Flynn

Jeff Gagnon

Michel Hovan (phone)

Richard Ji

Wesley Major

Jim Patterson

Chris Oswald

Mike Paglione

Wildredo Villafane

Lauren Vitagliano

Shelley Yak

Jim Make

Evancio Costa

Gary L. Mitchell

Khalil Kodsi

Andrew Sousa

Jeff Sedin

Eric Neiderman

Frank Fee 

Scott Mansh

Justin Barknowski 

Brett Williams

Ryan King

Mike DiPilato

Steve Summer

Sandi Middleton

John McGrath

Navneet Garg

Jonathan Torres

Keith Bagot

Chris Seher

Rich Speir

Qingge Jia

Ryan Rutter

Chinita Roundtree-Coleman
Airports Subcommittee

Attendees List

March 4, 2020

Day 2

Names

Susan Kaelin (minutes)

Sandi Middleton

Chris Seher

Richard Ji

Qingge Jia

Will Villafane

Ryan Rutter

Murphy Flynn

Jim Mack

Gary L. Mitchell

Chris Oswald

Jeff Sedin

Andrew Sousa

Frank Fee

Scott Marsh

Brett Williams

Jeff Gagnon

Jim Patterson

Ryan King

Matt Brynick

Navneet Garg

Scott Murrell

Brett Speir

David R. Brill

John McGrath

Evancio Costa

Holly Cyrus

Keith Bagot

Jonathan Torres

Chinita Roundtree-Coleman

Khalil Khodsi (phone)

Mike Paglione (phone)

John Dermody (phone)