MARCH 2001

Aviation issues continue to be a major focus on Capitol Hill. After five years of continuously reducing funding for aviation research, things have now reached crisis proportions.

The U.S. aviation industry is taking some body blows as well. Boeing, once the clear leader in commercial transport sales, has been struggling—and sometimes losing—to keep the lead from Airbus Industrie of Europe. And as military aircraft production programs continue to wind down, manufacturers are relying more and more on foreign sales to keep their production lines open.

The long-term future of domestic military aircraft production is ominous. Plans are currently being reviewed to select a single winner in the Joint Strike Fighter competition. This approach might make sense on the surface, but it could mean that the loser would stop manufacturing fighter aircraft, reducing our manufacturing resources and output even more significantly.

The aviation industry is enjoying a few bright spots, however. In the wake of the TWA 800 accident in 1997 and after a White House-sponsored study, the government launched a national aviation safety program with the primary goal of reducing the aircraft accident rate by 80 percent in 10 years. The program, managed by NASA Langley Research Center with close Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) support, will "develop and demonstrate technologies and strategies to improve aviation safety by reducing both aircraft accident and fatality rates."

The program is looking at six areas:

• System-Wide Accident Prevention
• Single Aircraft Prevention
• Weather Accident Prevention
• Synthetic Vision Technology Development
• Accident Mitigation
• Aviation Systems Monitoring and Modeling.

IEEE-USA’s Aerospace Technology Policy Committee (APC) is drafting a position paper to express strong support for federally funded aviation programs in general, and the aviation safety program in particular. APC expects to make the following recommendations:

• Congress must maintain program funding in NASA and the FAA; Congress cannot let funding erode for any reason.

• Research must be focused to identify and develop new technologies that may reduce the accident rate. The NASA/FAA program must coordinate efforts with such other government agencies as the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as with industry, especially aircraft and avionics manufacturers.

• Since human error is a leading cause of accidents, the research program should investigate ways to reduce and mitigate the impact of potential human factors in aviation accidents.

• The interplay of safety and security must be examined; we must determine whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship between increased security measures and a reduction in the accident rate.

Another bright spot for aviation is renewed industry interest in congressional funding for aviation research. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), for example, is spearheading an ad hoc aviation research coalition to support efforts aimed at increasing aviation research funding. The coalition’s proposed position paper recommends:

• Addressing the question of adequate funding for NASA and DOD aviation research, not only with respect to the FY 2001 budget, but also – and even more significantly – with respect to preserving U.S. capability and leadership in long-term aeronautics research and technology.

• Concurring strongly with the 18 July 2000, letter of the 18 aviation/aerospace organizations submitted to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, and Independent Agencies Appropriation Subcommittee, which recommends that the Congress provide at least the President’s FY 2001 budget request for NASA’s aeronautics research.

• Identifying the aeronautics research and technology (R&T) programs at NASA, DOD, and FAA clearly within the all-encompassing FY 2000 federal budget category of "Aerospace Research and Technology"

• Broadening the duties of the planned commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry to include intensive consideration of NASA and DOD research in aviation.

• Establishing a national aviation R&T policy to plan and provide adequate resources to ensure sustained U.S. world leadership in civil and military aviation.

Cary Spitzer, past chair of IEEE-USA’s Aerospace Technology Policy Committee, works at AvioniCon, Inc in Williamsburg, Virginia.  He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.