FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

Subcommittee on Aircraft Safety (SAS) 

2020 Fall Meeting Minutes 

August 11-12, 2020 

The 2020 Fall Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) Subcommittee on 

Aircraft Safety (SAS) meeting was held virtually on August 11-12, 2020. This document summarizes 

discussions and activities that occurred during the meeting. The meeting resulted in four findings and 

six recommendations (F&Rs), which have been included as part of the official REDAC Chair’s submission 

to the FAA. All presentation materials are available and can be downloaded through the FAA REDAC 

website – https://faa.gov/go/redac 

Day 1 – August 11, 2020 

Introduction/Opening 

The Acting SAS Designated Federal Official (DFO) Mike Paglione, Technical Center Director Shelley Yak, 

and Subcommittee Chair Terry McVenes jointly kicked off the meeting with brief opening remarks, 

which were followed by introduction of SAS members and all attendees. 

Updates on R&D Landscapes 

Steve Summer briefed the attendees on the status of the Research and Development (R&D) Landscapes 

initiative. Broadly, the Landscapes provide an effective means for communicating research needs among 

stakeholders as well as for targeted research planning. The landscapes document is considered a living 

document that needs to be continuously updated as the aviation ecosystem evolves. Summer 

mentioned that there is a need for better socialization with stakeholders regarding landscape drivers’ 

definition, utilization, and mapping to the current projects. 

SAS Chair Report on Full REDAC Meeting 

SAS Chair, Mr. McVenes reported on the July 9, 2020 full REDAC meeting. He mentioned that the focus 

of the meeting was on Covid-19 impact on the FAA research program, human factors/automation 

interactions challenges, NASA priorities and strategies for research, and subcommittee reports. Mr. 

McVenes also presented a summary of other subcommittee reports including F&Rs from last meeting 

and then highlighted the other subcommittee F&Rs. 

R&D Budget Update 

Elizabeth Delarosby, Manager of Research, Engineering, and Development (RE&D) Financial 

Management, presented the FAA FY21 RE&D budget. Ms. Delarosby presented highlights of the enacted 

FY21 budget including House language. The Senate language was still to be determined at the time of 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the presentation. The target of $170M has been established for RE&D budget for FY22 through FY26. 

The current FAA authorization signed by President on October 5, 2018 extends authorization through 

2023. 

Review of FY2020 Research Portfolio Accomplishments 

The attendees reviewed briefly R&D funding status for FY20, FY21, and FY22 as well as FY2020 portfolio 

accomplishments in Aircraft Safety Assurance, Digital System Safety, Environment and Weather Impact 

Mitigation, Human Performance and Aeromedical Factors, and Aviation Performance and Planning 

domains. 

Day 2 – August 12, 2020 

Portfolio Development Process Update 

Mark Orr, FAA Office of Aviation Safety (AVS) RE&D Manager, provided an update on the portfolio 

development process for FY23. Mr. Orr compared the changes made to the FY2023 portfolio 

development process with the FY2022 process to demonstrate the improvements. Highlights of the 

improvements are: to develop Mendoza Lines for each individual Budget Line Item (BLI) based on 

Finance-provided contract funding levels by BLI instead of across all proposals and BLIs, to develop BLI 

plans for each BLI modelled after the UAS Research Plan, and to use pairwise comparison instead of 

scoring/grouping methodology. 

Mr. Orr mentioned that the BLI Teams currently were defining initial scope, ecosystem, funding profile, 

objectives and operational capabilities. The next steps are: writing proposals to meet the BLI plan 

objectives and operational capabilities plans, ranking, and budget programming to targets to produce 

draft FY2023 portfolio in time for winter/spring REDAC season. 

Attendees discussed the issue of reallocating R&D funds for urgent research needs. The FAA will provide 

a briefing on as to how the portfolio process allows to reallocate R&D funds for urgent research needs 

like the Boeing B-737 Max case and how much of the funds are reallocated for what urgent research 

needs, if any, in the next SAS meeting. 

Discussion on F&Rs from SAS February 2020 Meeting 

Mr. McVenes led the review of February 2020 meeting’s F&Rs on the FAA’s fatigue-related projects as 

well as the FAA’s response to the F&Rs. After discussion on the subject, the FAA agreed to provide a 

deep-dive presentation on the fatigue-related projects in the next SAS meeting in February 2021. 

Covid-19 impact on R&D program 

Mike Paglione, acting DFO, and Stacey Zinke of the FAA Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center provided a 

briefing on impact of Covid-19 on Phase I recovery as well as impact of Covid-19 on William J Hughes 

Technical Center and Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) laboratories. The work in the laboratories 

was on hold due to Covid-19 when this meeting was held. 

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In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) 

John Koelling and Misty Davis presented NASA’s In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) 

initiative. The purpose of IASMS is to “leverage the emergency-response community assembled and 

energized by Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEReO) to develop and deliver IASMS related 

safety enhancements, tools and processes needed for increasingly autonomous, heterogeneous air 

vehicle missions. Leveraging this community lowers the cost for development and assurance of safety 

processes and tools while providing immediate societal benefit.” 

This initiative is being conducted in collaboration with the FAA, RTCA, Inc., and other stakeholders. In 

addition, the initiative was presented to the FAA senior executives and that they approved it for 

execution. 

Commercial Space research briefing 

Ken Davidian of the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) presented on the commercial 

space R&D program, which includes the following four research areas: aerospace access and operations; 

aerospace vehicles; human operations and space flight; and industry innovation. Dr. Davidian briefly 

presented the tasks within each research areas including tasks description and their status. He 

mentioned that the total AST R&D budget is approximately 1.2% of the FAA’s R&D budget. 

Update on UAS Research 

Nick Lento of FAA’s Office of NextGen, ANG-C, provided an overview of the NextGen’s New Entrants 

Division. This division supports the evolution of the National Airspace System (NAS) by integrating 

Research and Development (R&D) to refine NAS operational requirements, influence NAS operational 

improvements and sustainment, and managing the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) R&D 

portfolios. Mr. Lento also provided an overview of the FAA’s Center of Excellence (COE) for Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems (UASs). He then presented a list of ongoing UAS R&D projects with their progress 

status. 

General Aviation 2030: GA Exploratory Analysis 

Dr. Evan Harrison of the Georgia Institute of Technology briefed attendees on their research, titled as 

General Aviation 2030: GA Exploratory Analysis, which is geared to describe strategic general aviation 

research topics that can help the FAA and other GA stakeholders better prepare for general aviation 

issues in 2030. Dr. Harrison mentioned that his team has generated questionnaires for seven identified 

research areas and that they have completed interviews using the questionnaire. The final report is 

being finalized to help the FAA to prepare long-term GA R&D plans. 

Fatigue Risk Management: FAA Fatigue Working Group and Research Update 

Ashley Awwad of the FAA provided an update on the FAA’s research on fatigue research as well as the 

fatigue Working Group (WG). She mentioned that the fatigue WG been expanded to include rotorcraft 

as per this committee’s suggestion during the Feb 2020 meeting. Due to COVID-19, the Internal Review 

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Board (IRB) has issued new restrictions on the experiments involving humans, meaning, CAMI cannot 

perform those fatigue research tasks that involved human participation during COVID-19. 

Closeout Discussion 

Mr. Paglione and Mr. McVenes led the close-out discussion for the meeting. Attendees decided to hold 

the winter/spring meeting on Feb 23-24, 2021 and SAS summer/fall meeting on August 10-11, 2021. The 

location for both is TBD. 

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Subcommittee on Aircraft Safety 

Summer-Fall 2020 - August 11 - 12, 2020 

Attendees Lists

DAY 1

Number Name Affiliation

1 CA Roundtree-Coleman FAA

2 Mike Paglione FAA

3 Hossein Eghbali FAA

4 Mark Orr FAA

5 Terry McVenes RTCA

6 Stacey Zinke FAA/CAMI

7 Alanna Randazzo FAA

8 Ken Knopp FAA

9 Tim Marker

10 Ahmet Oztekin

11 Akbar Sultan

12 Anthony Tvaryanas

13 Ashley Awwad

14 Bryan Lesko

15 Caprice Brown

16 Chris Heck

17 Chuck Perala

18 Cliff Johnson

19 Curtis Davis

20 Dan Brock

21 Dan Cordasco

22 Dave Atwood

23 Don Kauffman

24 Donliya Deneva Raza

25 Doug Rodzon

26 Edward Weinstein

27 Elizabeth Delarosby

28 Eric Neiderman

29 Frank Wondowloski

30 Huasheng Li

31 Isidore Venetos

32 Jeff Warner

33 Jim Mangie

34 John Bakuckas

35 John Crowley

36 John Fisher

37 John Miller

38 John Mixon
39 Jolea Russotto

40 Jorge Fernandez

41 Kristen Piotrowski

42 Lynn Pham

43 Matt Fuller

44 Michael Vu

45 Michael Walz

46 Michelle Yeh

47 Rany Azzi

48 Rich Golden

49 Sohrob Mottaghi

50 Srini Mandalapu

51 Steve Edgar

52 Steve Summer

53 Tara Holmes

54 Thomas Flournoy

55 William A. Crossley

56 James T. Riley

57 Robert Ochs

58 Kevin Stonaker

59 Jaime Figueroa

60 Somil Shah

61 Stephanie DiVito

62 Mularrem Mane

63 Angela Campbell

64 Tim Evans

65 Lisa Smith

66 Vasudeva Kolli

67 John Van Houdt

68 Kathy Abbott

69 Robert Ellis

70 Sherri Hubbard

71 1-334-655-5134

72 1-609-478-2874

73 Dave Galella

74 1-609-338-8783

75 1-609-927-7128

76 1-860-306-1840

77 DRP 3833

78 Dan Eigenbrode
DAY 2

Number Name Affiliation

1 CA Roundtree-Coleman

2 Mike Paglione

3 Mark Orr

4 John Bakuckas

5 Ahmet Oztekin

6 Akbar Sultan

7 Angela Campbell

8 Bryan Lesko

9 Caprice Brown

10 Carla Hackworth

11 Chris Heck

12 Chuck Perala

13 Cliff Johnson

14 Colleen Donovan

15 Curtis Davies

16 Dan Brock

17 Dan Cordasco

18 Dan Dellmyer

19 Dan Keslar

20 Dave Atwood

21 Doneliya Deneva Raza

22 DRP 3833

23 Frank Wondolowski

24 Huasheng Li

25 Jeff Gardin

26 Jim Mangie

27 John Fisher

28 Kathy Abbott

29 Ken Knopp

30 Kevin Stonaker

31 Louise Speitel

32 Michael Vu

33 Michelle Yeh

34 Muharrem Mane

35 Rany Azzi

36 Rich Golden

37 Sean Crowley

38 Srini Mandalapu

39 Stacey Zinke

40 Steve Edgar

41 Steve Summer 
42 Terry McVenes

43 Tong Vu

44 Vasudeva Kolli

45 Robert Ochs

46 Alanna Randazzo

47 Dan Eighenbrode

48 Jorge Fernandez

49 Lacey Thompson

50 Kevin Correl

51 Lance Prinzel

52 Misty Davies

53 Ken Davidian

54 John Koelling

55 Evan Harrison

56 John Van Houdt

57 Nick Lento

58 Thomas Nesthus

59 Robert Ellis

60 1-334-655-5134

61 Ashley Awwad

62 Don Kauffman
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix II 

2020 Fall REDAC SAS Meeting 

Agenda 

Aug 11 – 12, 2020 

Dress code: Business Casual 

Location: Virtual Meeting 

Zoom Meeting info: https://faavideo.zoomgov.com/j/1606520978 

Password: 822100 

Phone Audio Only: 

• Call 1-888-924-3239 or 1-571-302-4908; enter Meeting ID: 160 652 0978 

Password: 822100 

Aug 11, 2020 (Tuesday) 

Time Topic Presenter(s) 

1000 – 1015 Arrival to Zoom 

1015 - 1030 Opening Remarks/Purpose of the Meeting Mike Paglione 

1030 - 1100 Opening remarks/ Updates on R&D Landscapes Shelley Yak & Steve Summer 

1100- 1130 SAS Chair Opening & Report on REDAC Meeting Terry McVenes 

1130 - 1200 FAA Budget Update Beth Delarosby 

1200 - 1300 Lunch Break 

1300 - 1430 

FY2020 Aircraft Safety Assurance Portfolio Accomplishments 

(Fire Research and Safety, Propulsion and Fuel Systems, 

Advanced Materials/Structural Safety, Continued Airworthiness 

– Systems, Continued Airworthiness – Structures, and Aircraft 

Catastrophic Failure Prevention Research) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1430 - 1445 Comfort Break 

1445 - 1515 Continuation of FY2020 Aircraft Safety Assurance Portfolio 

Accomplishments Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1515 - 1530 

FY2020 Digital Systems & Technologies Portfolio 

Accomplishments (Digital System Safety and Aircraft Systems 

Information Security Protection) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1530 - 1545 FY2020 Environment & Weather Impact Mitigation (Aircraft 

Icing) Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1545 - 1600 

FY2020 Human Performance & Aeromedical Factors Portfolio 

Accomplishments (Flight Deck/Maintenance/System Integration 

Human Factors and Aeromedical Research) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1600 - 1630 

FY2020 Aviation Performance & Planning Portfolio 

Accomplishments (System Safety Management/Terminal Area 

Safety and 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1630 First Day Review – Homework Assignments 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020 Fall REDAC SAS Meeting 

Agenda 

Aug 11 – 12, 2020 

Dress code: Business Casual 

Location: Virtual Meeting 

Zoom Meeting info: https://faavideo.zoomgov.com/j/1607097272 

Password: 787189 

Phone Audio Only: 

• Call 1-888-924-3239 or 1-571-302-4908; enter Meeting ID: 160 709 7272 

Password: 787189 

• Please remember you can mute or unmute yourself by pressing *6. 

August 12, 2020 (Wednesday) 

Time Topic Presenter(s) 

0745 – 0800 Arrival to Zoom 

0800 – 0830 Review Day1: Homework, Feedback, etc. Terry McVenes/Mike Paglione/Mark Orr 

0830 – 0900 Update on process refinement Mark Orr 

0900 – 0930 February 2020 SAS Meeting F&Rs Mike Paglione/Mark Orr/Stacey 

0930 – 1000 Covid-19 impact on R&D program- update CAMI and WJHTC 

1000 – 1015 Comfort Break 

1015 – 1100 In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) Akbar Sultan (NASA) 

1100 – 1145 Commercial Space research briefing Ken Davidian 

1145 – 1300 Lunch 

1300 – 1345 Update on UAS Research Bill Oehlschlager/Nick Lento/TBD 

1345 – 1430 General Aviation 2030: GA Exploratory Analysis Georgia Institute of Technology 

1430 – 1515 

Fatigue Risk Management: 

FAA Fatigue Working Group and Research Update 

(additional information requested by SAS in Feb meeting) 

Katrina Avers 

1515 – 1530 Comfort break 

1530 – 1630 

SAS Fall 2020 F&R discussions and feedback/Closing 

remarks Terry McVenes/Mike Paglione/Mark Orr 

1630 Adjourn 

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