Research, Engineering & Development

What this funds

Why FAA Research and Development Matters FAA research is primarily applied R&D designed to help the agency develop policies, regulations, certifications, guidance, and standards that increase safety and modernize the ' Provision of research data and analyses to modernize NAS operations ' Evaluation and validation of requirements, procedures, and methods ' Production of useful materials, devices, systems, tools, and technologies FAA research, analyses, and development enable new technologies, procedures, and training methods that advance aviation technology. FAA R&D helps the aerospace community adapt to new safety issues and service demands resulting from increased unmanned aircraft systems, commercial spaceflight activities, and the birth of new industries such as advanced air mobility. The research will influence the future of FAA oversight, considering the expansion of aviation industries, the sustained growth in aviation, the incorporation of more sophisticated analytical safety tools, and the adoption of mature safety management systems. Agency research aims to counter growing cybersecurity threats posed by increasingly interconnected systems and minimize the impact of aerospace activities on the environment. R&D helps the aerospace industry modernize the nation's infrastructure, creating new The FAA substantially impacts aviation, space, and the U.S. economy. This increases American economic competitiveness, fuels economic growth, and creates jobs. R&D is critical to reinforcing FAA's role as the world's premier aerospace body and is essential for the continued How the FAA's Research Shapes the Future FAA research focuses on a core safety mission and prioritizes integrating emerging technologies into the NAS while minimizing environmental impacts. The NAS is evolving to support diverse aerospace operations brought about by new technologies and vehicle types. As the world becomes more digitally interconnected, there is exponential growth in data availability, computing power, and storage capacity. Improvements made through FAA's deployment of NextGen provide the foundation for the future. By adding new planned capabilities and services and capitalizing on modern information- based technology, the FAA will continue transforming the aviation system and accommodating all users in a changing environment. NAS evolution will address the expected changes and take advantage of data, innovative technologies, and new capabilities in three areas:

Extracted from FAA, p. 1. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

Contracts funded by this line

198 linked contracts. These are obligations — lifetime awarded money — and they are not comparable to the request above and are never added to it. No total is shown: an award linked to several lines is counted in full on each, so the sum would not be a fact.

Showing 8 of 198 — most confidently matched first, largest within a confidence tier. These are not necessarily the largest 8.

Confidence mix · 198 certain

Linked contracts are a floor, not a census. Coverage is bounded by how distinctively a program is named and, for performer links, to RDT&E and Procurement — O&M and military construction publish no performers. Budget figures are FY2027 request dollars; contract figures are obligations. The two measure different things and must never be summed together.

Ask this budget line

Answers come from the figures on this page and nothing else. These dollars are parsed from Transportation's Congressional Justification and are approximate — confirm anything that matters against the cited page.