Federal Aviation 

Administration Airport Technology 

Research Overview 

& 

Airport Noise and 

Environmental Research 

Update 

To: REDAC Subcommittee on Environment & 

Energy 

By: Dr. Michel Hovan, Branch Manager, ATR 

Tom Cuddy, Airport Planning and 

Environmental (APP-400) 

Date: March 7, 2018 
Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

Agenda 

• ATR Research Overview – Michel Hovan 

• PFC Research within Aircraft Rescue 

Firefighting (ARFF) – Michel Hovan 

• Airport Noise & Environmental Research 

Update – Tom Cuddy 

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William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center 

Tyndall AFB, Panama City, FL 

• 3,000 Fed/Contractor 

• 1,000 non-FAA Tenants 

• Over 5,000 Acres 

Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Airport Technology Research 

19 Research Program Areas (RPAs) 

Airport Safety R&D Section 

Airport Pavement R&D Section 

Research Sponsored by: 

• FAA Office of Airport Safety and Standards 

– Airport Engineering Division (AAS-100) 

– Airport Safety and Operations Division (AAS-300) 

• FAA Office of Planning and Programming 

– Planning and Environmental Division (APP-400) 

• FAA Office of Environment and Energy 

Provide support for development of FAA pavement

and safety standards (Advisory Circulars). 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

Airport Safety RPAs 

• S1 - Airport Planning & Design 

– Trapezoidal Grooves, FOD Detection, Taxiway Deviation, Airport Planning Tools, RIM 

• S2- Airport Safety Database 

– Safety data from various sources 

• S3- Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARRF) 

• New Large Aircraft Strategies & Agent Methodology, ARFF Vehicles, Firefighting

Systems, Agents, Tools, Composites 

• S4- Wildlife Mitigation 

– Avian Radar, Wildlife Strike Database, Wildlife Management 

• S5- Visual Guidance 

– Lights, Signs, Paint/Markings, LEDs, Other Visual Cues, Incursions 

• S6- Runway Surface Operations & Technology – Friction, CFMEs, Winter Ops, TALPA, Deicing, EM 

• S7- Airport Safety and Surveillance Sensors 

– Low cost surveillance, Aeromacs 

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Airport Safety RPAs 

• S8 – Reserved 

• S9 – Research Taxiway 

– Outdoor Facility located at Cape May Airport 

• S10- UAS Integration at Airports and Detection 

– Airport Applications and Detection 

• RPA N1-5 Airport Noise / and RPA Environmental 

– Annoyance, Sleep Disturbance, NLR, GIS Tools, Air Quality 

Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

Overall Branch Budget 

• ATR Budget stable around 33M for FY-18 to 

FY-20 

– 90% of budget is contract dollars 

– 38% on Pavement Research 

– 37% on Safety Research 

– 8% on Noise and Environmental Research 

– 17% on Facilities 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

ARFF Program -

Environmental Effects of AFFF 

• What is AFFF? 

– Aqueous Film-Forming Foam 

Perfluorinated Surfactants = PFCs 

• PFOS – 3M stopped production around 2002 

– Are all other AFFF’s going away? 

• PFOA – All other manufacturers 

– EPA backed off these chemicals 

– EPA Voluntary Stewardship Program – thru 2015 

-

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PFC Contamination Headlines 

Federal Aviation 

Administration 
Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

Current AFFF Industry 

• Foam manufacturers working to reduce the amount 

of PFOA by using different chemical formulas (C6 

vs C8 carbon chain). 

• Int’l standard organizations are adding PFOA limits 

as part of approval process. 

– EU 25ppb PFOA 

– NavSea – considering limiting PFC’s amounts in Mil Spec 

• New AFFFs do not have PFOA yet still utilize 

other PFC’s in their formulation. 

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ATR Current Research - ARFF 

1. Evaluate AFFF Alternatives – Flourine-free 

foams 

– Limited labs large enough for required testing 

– None capable of handling chemical waste collection 

ATR planning for a new fire test building to evaluate new 

Federal Aviation 

Administration 

firefighting agents. 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

ATR Current Research - ARFF 

2. Foam Proportioning System Test Technologies 

- 14 CFR Part 139 requires airports to discharge foam for 

annual certification. 

- Create new process for testing foam without discharging 

onto the ground. 

- Two current systems: 

- No-Foam System 

- Eco-Logic (E-One) 

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Airport Noise Research Funding 

FY16 – FY19 

RPA N - Airport Noise 

[$ Mil] 

FY16 

$.75 

FY17 

$1.65 

FY18 

$2.1 

FY19 

$2.05 

N1 National Noise Survey 

N1.1 - National Noise Survey 

N1.2 - NEPA Significance Definition 

N1.3 - Interior Sound Mitigation 

N1.4 - Mitigation Below 65db DNL 

N1.5 - National Noise Survey Phone Analysis 

N2 DNL & Metrics Evaluation 

N2.1 - Noise Metric Re-Evaluation Using Noise Survey Results 

N3 Sleep Disturbance 

N3.1 - National Survey to Quantify Impacts of Aviation Noise on Sleep Disturbance 

N4 Noise Mitigation 

N4.1 - Investigation of ASTM E966 Adjustment Factors 

N4.2 - Noise Level Reduction Review of Test Methods 

N4.3 - Noise Abatement Procedure Effectiveness 

Placeholder for 10-year framework results 

N5 Operations 

N5.1 - Noise Dispersion with Equivalent Space Operations (ELSO) PBN Procedures 

N5.2 - Steeper Noise Abatement Approach Operational Feasibility 

Large increase from FY16 to FY17 due to merging of noise-related research from Environmental 

Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Airport Noise Research 

Noise Annoyance Survey 

– Year-long data collection, drafting final report. 

– A public review and comment process will occur prior to making any 

policy determinations 

– Phone Analysis National Survey 

• Using phone data collected, research WHY people are more or less 

annoyed by aircraft noise 

• 2,328 phone interviews 

• Develop analysis plan to determine what additional information can be 

identified regarding annoyance responses and people’s experiences. 

• Same research team - 12 month effort 

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Airport Noise Research 

Sleep Disturbance Survey 

Objective: Conduct large scale sleep study to determine 

national relationship between sleep and aircraft noise. 

• Follow-on from ASCENT grant 

• CSRA/UPENN Contract 

Phase 1 – Study Design – 12 months (kicked off in December 2017) 

Phase 2 – Study Preparation – 6-12 months 

Phase 3 – Data Collection – 24 months 

Phase 4 – Data Analysis & Final Report – 6-12 months 

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Administration 
 

Airport Noise Research 

Noise Impact & Mitigation 

1. Investigation of ASTM E966 Adjustment Factors 

– Identify adjustment factors for measurements of noise reduction in sound 

insulation programs and validate factors through modeling and field 

measurements. 

• Façade reflection using loudspeaker and flush-mounted microphone = 6bd (5db) 

• Façade reflection using loudspeaker and near-facade microphone = 3.5db (2db) 

2. Noise Level Reduction Review of Test Methods 

– Follow up to ASTM E966, same team, 18mo effort began in Nov 2017 

– Evaluate the 2 measurement methods used in RSIPs and help Airports develop 

industry standards 

16 Federal Aviation 

Administration 
 

 

 

Airport Noise Research 

Noise Impact & Mitigation 

3. Noise Abatement Procedure Effectiveness 

– MITRE effort began Sept 2017 

– Explore operational procedures with the potential to reduce community noise 

expose 

– Understand procedure usage and effectiveness 

– Develop guidance leading to more effective and frequently-used noise 

abatement procedures 

4. Steeper Noise Abatement Approach Operational Feasibility 

– Evaluate feasibility of steeper approaches in terms of performance, terminal 

instrument procedures, and Flight Management System (FMS) dependencies 

– ID, evaluate and document operational considerations 

– Recommend a path forward for use in the NAS 

17 Federal Aviation 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

Airport Noise Research FY 19/20 

Sleep Disturbance Survey 

Annoyance Study - Re-evaluation of DNL metric 

• Data mine survey results to determine if there is more appropriate metric than 

DNL to correlate annoyance and aircraft sound level 

– Phone survey data analysis 

Develop NLR Stands through SAE A-21 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

 

 

 

 

 

Airport Environmental Research 

Funding FY16 – FY19 

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 

RPA E - Airport Environmental Research [$ Mil] $1.0 $.25 $.40 $.50 

E1 Environmental Tools and Guidance 

E1.1 - 10-Year Framework for Environmental/Planning R&D 

E1.2 - Airport Air Screening Methods Phase 1 Phase 2 

E1.3 - Review of Airport Standards, A/Cs, Orders, Design Criteria for Climate Adaption 

and Resiliency (Severe Weather Resiliency) 

E1.4 - Geospatial Data Library/Environmental Mapping Tool 

E1.5 - Sustainability Synthesis 

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Airport Environmental Research 

– Extends model of airport technology research programs on 

pavement and airport safety to improve performance of airports in 

reducing environmental impacts while responding to community 

needs for transportation services. 

– Develop environmental solutions to help airports and surrounding 

communities. 

– Collaborative effort among ARP, AEE and Tech Center 

– Began with 5 projects with FY16 funds 

– Each project has a technical lead from ARP and AEE 

– Developed 10-Year research plan to guide efforts 

20 Federal Aviation 

Administration 
 

 

 

 

Airport Planning & Environmental 

Research Program – 10 Year Plan 

• Established to support research efforts 

and development of guidance and 

tools for planning and environmental 

issues related to airport development 

and operation. 

• High-level objectives 

• Alignment of research projects under 

multiple focus areas 

• Provides vision and justification for 

resources 

• Inform APP policy-making decisions 

21 Federal Aviation 

Administration 
Framework for Research Program 

FAA 

Vision 

Improve 

aviation 

safety 

Improve 

efficiency 

Environmental 

responsibility 

Global 

Leadership 

Introduction 

• ARP is committed to a research program 

that: 

– Informs a sustainable, smart growth 

strategy for US airports 

– Enhances incorporation of technology and 

data synthesis in the interest of efficient 

airport development 

– Prioritizes practical research with 

results that can be of direct use to the 

airport industry 

• Purpose of the Environmental and 

Planning Research Program: 

– Ensure concepts and ideas for planning and 

environment are effectively integrated into 

the airport community through application of 

modern tools and processes 

– Improve the performance of airports in 

reducing their environmental impacts while 

responding to community needs for 

transportation services 

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Federal Aviation 

Administration 
Priority Topic Areas 

Planning Environmental 

Reduce/Mitigate

Noise & Air 

Emissions 

Sustainability 

Enhance 

Analytical

Capabilities 

Land Use 

Planning 

Improve Safety 

with Better 

Design 

Comprehensive 

Planning 

Data Synthesis 

Incorporate 

New 

Technology 

23 Federal Aviation 

Administration 
 

 

 

 

FY18 Airport Environmental Research 

Projects 

1. Geospatial Data Library 

– Tool Development 

2. Airport Air Quality Screening Methods – Phase 2 

– Validate current NEPA flow chart and operational screening methods 

– Develop construction methodology for attainment area projects 

– Updates to AQ handbook 

3. Sustainability Synthesis 

24 Federal Aviation 

Administration 
Federal Aviation 

Administration 

ANG-E261

Questions? 

Dr. Michel Hovan 

ANG-E26 

Michel.Hovan@faa.gov 

Lauren Collins Tom Cuddy 

ANG-E261 APP-400 

Lauren.Collins@faa.gov Thomas.Cuddy@faa.gov 

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