T. WILSON PROFESSOR OF ROOM 33-303 

AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS 77 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE 

DIRECTOR CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139 

 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR AIR TRANSPORTATION (617) 253-2271 FAX (617) 253-4196 

 E-MAIL: rjhans@mit.edu 

March 26, 2008 

The Honorable Robert Sturgell 

Administrator 

Federal Aviation Administration 

800 Independence Avenue, SW 

Washington, DC 20591 

Dear Administrator Sturgell: 

On behalf of the Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee (REDAC), I am enclosing the 

summary observations and recommendations from the spring meetings of the standing REDAC Subcommittees 

(Aircraft Safety, NAS Operations, Environment and Energy, Airports, and Human Factors). 

The full committee also made the following general observations which we would like to bring to your attention: 

NEXTGEN Requirements Flow Down - Research efforts to support NEXTGEN are hampered by the lack of clear 

requirements flow down sufficient to define the research requirements and priorities. The JPDO Integrated Work 

Plan V 0.2 is unfocused, unprioritized and does not clearly define key research questions or development goals. 

New Standards for New System Capabilities - A critical component of system modernization will be the 

development and approval of new standards and operating procedures which reflect the capabilities of the 

NEXTGEN infrastructure. This has been highlighted by the REDAC focused study on Separation Standards and is 

emerging as an issue in ADS-B transition. In addition there appear to be near term opportunities to improve system 

capability such as reduced separation standards for ILS/RNAV and RNAV/RNAV paths to adjacent and nearby 

airports (e.g. LGA and JFK). In order to be most effective this will require an integrated approach to connect R&D 

with standards development. This effort should include AVS and ATO and should not be constrained by 

organizational barriers. 

Weather Information - Weather is a key factor influencing both the safety of flight and the performance of the NAS. 

The rapid growth of information distribution channels and weather products creates a dynamic environment for 

weather information in the cockpits and ATC facilities. The agency should encourage weather products which 

support pilot, controllers, and dispatchers while avoiding any adverse impacts. The REDAC supports a vigorous 

FAA weather research program with nodes in AVS focused on flight safety and in ATO focused on operational 

efficiency. 

High Confidence Software Development Strategy – There is an increasing reliance on software based system for 

high criticality applications both in aircraft systems and in ATC systems. The current software development and 

maintenance processes are cumbersome, expensive and incomplete. The FAA is not unique in this regard as other 

federal agencies and industries struggle with issues of software criticality. The REDAC suggests that this be a 

priority area both for FAA internal development and for inter-agency coordination. 

We hope that these observations are useful to you and the agency. The REDAC stands ready to assist if there is any 

way we can help in our common objectives of improving the safety, efficiency and capability of the air 

transportation system. 

Sincerely, 

R. John Hansman 

Chair, FAA Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

Enclosure 
RE: CHAUDHRY PAGE 2 OF 8 

REDAC Recommendations for FY 2010 

Subcommittee on Human Factors

The subcommittee offers the following recommendations. 

a. The FAA needs to develop a clear roadmap of NextGen Human Factors challenges which 

elaborates and prioritizes required human factors research per solution set. These research 

requirements should be linked with current and planned HFRE efforts as well as priorities for 

workforce training and design. Gaps and opportunities for research progress and impact on 

FAA mid-term capabilities should be identified with cost and schedule projections. 

b. Increased hiring of experienced research managers is urgently needed to meet NextGen 

planning and execution challenges. Current management shortfalls are limiting the ability of 

the HFRE group to staff key planning and development meetings with NextGen partners. 

c. Increased hiring of experienced human factors research and engineering staff at the FAA 

Tech Center is urgently needed to address emerging, critical research challenges in airground integration. There is a specific need to acquire research expertise in flight deck 

human factors to complement the outstanding existing competency in NextGen air traffic 

management human factors. 

d. In order to effectively address Human Factors issues within the timetable for NEXGEN, the 

FAA needs to aggressively augment and leverage available Human Factors knowledge, 

resources, and facilities across different sectors of the aviation Human Factors research 

community. 

e. Increased emphasis must be placed on computational modeling and simulation as part of 

formal analytic methods for NextGen systems design and evaluation. 

Subcommittee on Airports

Recommendation 1: The Technical Center should continue research on Foreign Object Debris 

(FOD) radar to accelerate development of performance standards for utilization of this new 

technology on airports. 

Recommendation 2: The ongoing fire research on the double deck mockup of a new large 

aircraft at Tyndall Air Force Base should continue as a high priority. It is important that this 

research develop answers to questions if changes to the quantity requirements of fire fighting 

agent are needed for airports receiving new large aircraft service such as the A-380. 

Recommendation 3: The Subcommittee strongly supports the FY 2010 initiative to start 

development of a visual aid test bed facility. This will significantly increase the ability of the 

Technical Center to easily configure and install prototype lighting systems for testing and 

evaluation. 
RE: CHAUDHRY PAGE 3 OF 8 

Subcommittee on Aircraft Safety

Overview: Process-specific Recommendations

Recommendations: (note recommendations 1 and 1a are made jointly by the Safety and NAS 

Ops Subcommittees) 

1) The FAA should ensure that clear, detailed requirements for all NextGen R&D are defined 

and that a transparent and effective means is provided for their flow-down to R&D program 

planning and execution. The Subcommittees offer assistance to the FAA in developing and 

implementing this process. 

a. Subcommittees recommend that the FAA immediately jumpstart this requirements 

generation process by prioritizing needs based on NextGen programmatic risk, 

starting with the 183 research issues listed in the NextGen Concept of Operations 

(ConOps), and focusing FAA research at addressing the most critical issues. 

 

2) The FAA and NASA should jointly develop clear and actionable integrated roadmaps 

spanning all NextGen-required safety R&D and other safety-related R&D. The roadmaps 

should identify timelines, deliverables, and decision and transition points for the R&D’s 

insertion into infrastructure or regulatory products. Absent a more mature description of 

research needs, the Safety Subcommittee suggests that the 183 research issues from the 

ConOps be used as the basis for launching the NextGen-related roadmap process. 

3) The Safety Subcommittee recommends that the FAA update the TCRG planning process to: 

a. Improve communications & transparency with stakeholders. 

b. Expand the planning process to ensure the process extends beyond the AVS 

boundaries and into other key organizations such as ATO. The process should 

recognize the full slate of safety-related R&D being considered and ensure maximum 

synergy is developed in response to requirements. 

c. Monitor the performance of program elements to agreed-upon timelines and product 

delivery expectations, including well-defined success criteria. Multi-year funding 

profiles should be developed and used to ensure programs that are performing well 

towards their defined success criteria remain on track. However, programs that are 

not achieving the necessary results should be modified, redirected, or terminated. 

d. Ensure top-level NextGen requirements are clearly flowed into the process and that 

well-integrated programs are developed to address them. 

e. Identify key priority safety themes based on data and clearly articulated emerging 

issues/areas that cut across TCRGs and other FAA organizations. Develop integrated 

programs constructed to make significant impact on these critical areas. Possible 

areas for focus include: advanced software and digital systems integration, reducing 

general aviation accidents related to inadvertent flight into IMC conditions, 

improving runway safety, or identification and assessment of emerging risks. These 

areas are notional, however. The FAA should conduct a thorough review to 

determine the actual listing of critical areas based on current data and an 

understanding of emerging issues/areas. 

f. Identify key core competencies and capabilities needed for the FAA research 

organization. The FAA should ensure that a means is developed to advance these key 

core competencies and capabilities beyond the current state-of-the art. Absent a more 

effective means, the FAA should consider dedicating a percentage of the overall 

R&D budget this area. 

Program-specific Recommendations 
RE: CHAUDHRY PAGE 4 OF 8 

4) The safety subcommittee recommends that the FAA immediately identify clear customers 

and associated requirements for the weather-related safety R&D and ensure that its program 

is fully aligned to these needs. Immediate adjustments should be made as necessary to the 

2008 – 2010 weather program to ensure the program is fully aligned to customer-driven 

requirements and success metrics, and that actions are taken to implement its products into 

use. 

Software and Digital Systems 

5) The Safety Subcommittee recommends that the complex software and digital systems 

integration area should be significantly elevated in priority and identified as a key safety 

theme. The subcommittee recommends that a comprehensive and integrated program should 

be developed and appropriate resources allocated to springboard the FAA to a leading 

position in complex software and digital system safety. 

Fatigue and Lifing-related Proposals 

6) The Safety Subcommittee recommends that the RS-10-04 and SIM-10-02 program elements 

be terminated and the resources for these efforts be allocated to other efforts. The Safety 

Subcommittee further recommends that the FAA certification organization determine if 

guidance material is required for the restricted category rotorcraft community and the fixedwing general aviation community on acceptable means of compliance related to these issues. 

If so, the FAA should issue this guidance to the respective communities to enable them to 

perform the required work. 

Subcommittee on Environment and Energy

The subcommittee identified the following specific issues as matters to bring to the attention of 

the Administrator. 

Issue 1: The subcommittee noted that the Fiscal Year 2010 budget very clearly reflects the shifts 

in priorities recommended by the subcommittee to support NextGen. The program is well 

balanced and the right priorities and projects proposed. 

Recommendation 1: For solutions to become viable, the subcommittee recommends that the 

environmental research budget grow to the levels suggested in the NARP ($35M in RE&D, 

$20M in ATO-Cap) by 2011. 

Issue 2: The committee feels strongly that procurement competition is crucial to ensure 

excellence. Members feel that the Center of Excellence (COE) process – which was 

competitively selected – has proven to be a successful way to perform quality research and 

should continue. 

Recommendation 2: The committee recommends that, as the resources grow, the FAA ensure 

that performers are competitively selected.

Issue 3: The subcommittee noted that the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and 

Emissions Reduction (PARTNER) Center of Excellence (COE) had made substantial progress 

addressing environmental issues since its inception about four years ago. 

Recommendation 3: The subcommittee recommends that FAA continue supporting research 

through PARTNER at a robust level. 
RE: CHAUDHRY PAGE 5 OF 8 

Issue 4: The committee noted that there are many areas of noise research that need to be 

reviewed/assessed to address emerging topics and establish the research requirements to deal 

with these issues 

Recommendation 4: The subcommittee recommends that the FAA put together a draft of a 

comprehensive integrated noise research plan and brief to the subcommittee in August. 

Issue 5: The subcommittee commended the Commercial Alternative Aviation Fuels Initiative 

(CAAFI) process and noted the tremendous progress made in alternative fuels, particularly 

qualification and assessing environmental impacts. 

Recommendation 5: The subcommittee recommends that the FAA continue to carefully 

consider the life cycle emissions/environmental impact of alternative fuels. 

Issue 6: The committee noted that the climate aspects of the Aviation environmental Portfolio 

Management Tool (APMT) tool are very reliant on emerging science. It is important that 

developers continue to incorporate the latest science and improvements that could be made as 

appropriate. It will be important to not treat APMT as a black box, with a need to be well aware 

of existing uncertainties and gaps in any uses of the tool. 

Recommendation 6: The FAA needs to ensure that the latest scientific advice and sound 

uncertainty analyses are incorporated into APMT. The subcommittee asked for a briefing on the 

peer review to date of APMT and plans to continually improve the fundamental science of 

APMT. The subcommittee also asked for a briefing on how uncertainties are treated. 
RE: CHAUDHRY PAGE 6 OF 8 

NAS Operations Subcommittee

The subcommittee offers the following overall comments. 

With respect to the R&D Program in the OEP to support NextGen, the subcommittee agrees that 

facilitating NextGen should be a major focus of the R&D program. However, how this 

facilitation is being done was not clear because the R&D program elements were not clearly 

mapped to NextGen relevance. The linkage between the research being planned and the actual 

research requirements (from either the OEP or the JPDO’s Integrated Work Plan (version 1) was 

not clearly defined. In addition, the NextGen system analysis is not yet detailed enough to allow 

a quantitative evaluation of the R&D efforts. Therefore, the subcommittee thinks that the FAA 

cannot realistically assess R&D project relevance. From the information presented to the 

subcommittee, it seems that additional investment is required in analytical tools to properly 

evaluate the system design. Some policy decisions need to be made for NextGen progress to be 

made. For example, the decision about how much responsibility the air vehicle pilot will have 

for separation is pivotal in determining future research directions and final concepts. 

The research and development plans were presented to the subcommittee for each OEP solution 

set. The following are specific comments for each one presented: 

Solution Set: Initiate Trajectory Based Operations 

• The research content and funding appear appropriate for the shorter-term goals described, 

but the relevance to NextGen is limited to high altitude airspace. 

• The Weather aspects of the described efforts are not integral to the air traffic management 

R&D effort, and this must be corrected. 

Solution Set: Increase Arrivals/Departures at High Density Airports 

• The research content and funding appear adequate for the shorter term goals described, 

although some near term gaps were noted: 

– FAA should pursue reduced separation standards for ILS/RNAV and 

RNAV/RNAV paths to adjacent and nearby airports, e.g., La Guardia and JFK. 

– Weather parameters for CAVS need to be defined to maximize operator benefits. 

Solution Set: Increased Flexibility in Terminal Environment 

• There appears to be overlap and interdependencies between solution sets that is not 

explicitly stated and could be overlooked. For example, 

• Enhanced Tower data link (NR7 for TBO) and Surface Management (NR2 

for High Density Airports) 

• Pre-departure clearance in TBO and Pre-departure clearance in CATM) 

• The project to provide surface surveillance data to aircraft, ANSPs and Safety systems is 

very important 

• Wake Project achieved early successes 

– Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departures 

– St Louis Closely-Spaced Parallel Runway Waiver Proposal 

Solution Set: Improve Collaborative ATM 

• The research content and funding appear adequate for the shorter term goals described 

Solution Set: Reduce Weather Impact 

• Weather ATM Integration research 

– Current CAASD effort should be accelerated for early field trials (2009) 
RE: H U C A DHRY PAGE 7 OF 8 

– It is unclear if air traffic managers developers are participating in decision-making 

tools 

– No evidence was presented of assessing required weather information 

requirements in terms of levels of system capability 

• Legacy Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP) efforts need to be reevaluated and 

reprioritized in a way to make them closer to NextGen needs and weather-ATM 

integration 

• New Initiatives appear good 

– NNEW 4D Data Cube using NEO technology, to serve as the backbone of 

NextGen weather data 

– Weather to the Cockpit to reduce accidents; weather node 

• Weather – ATM Integration needs models of how flight crews react to weather in flight 

– Collaboration with Safety Subcommittee Recommended 

The NAS Ops Subcommittee offers the following recommendations: 

1) The FAA should review their R&D programs for the items listed below that the subcommittee 

perceived as R&D Gaps. For those items that the FAA agrees are gaps, resolve how the gap will 

be addressed. The gap could be schedule based or resource based. In other words, the FAA may 

have some work being done in these areas, but it may not be of sufficient levels to meet the 

NextGen goals in a timely and complete fashion. 

• The Subcommittee is concerned by apparent lack of the following research: 

– Probabilistic traffic flow management: Research that explores weather forecasts 

that both incorporate probabilistic outcomes and the anticipate impact on flows 

– UAS Impact on air traffic management: Research that explores the impact on 

controller workload, air traffic safety, flow efficiency/capacity, and potential new 

air traffic management procedures associated with more routine operation of UAS 

in controlled airspace 

– Operational requirements: Research that identifies all the activities and 

development needed to obtain approvals for the required NextGen policies, 

procedures, operations, or implementation of technology. 

– Equipage: Research that defines what system performance can be accomplished 

at various levels of equipage and equipage mixture, and what are the barriers 

– Policy: Research that informs policy changes necessary to achieve NextGen 

goals (e.g. equipage, first-come-first-served, avionics) 

The NAS Operations and the Aircraft Safety Subcommittees jointly offer the following 

recommendations: 

(2) The FAA should ensure that clear, detailed requirements for all NextGen R&D are defined 

and that a transparent and effective means is provided for their flow-down to R&D program 

planning and execution. The Subcommittees offer assistance to the FAA in developing and 

implementing this process. 

(3) The Subcommittees recommend that the FAA immediately jumpstart this requirements 

generation process by prioritizing needs, based on NextGen programmatic risk, perhaps starting 

with a review of the 167 research issues listed in the NextGen Concept of Operations (ConOps), 

and focusing FAA research at addressing the most critical issues.