Named "Excellence In Aviation Research Award" Winners
The Federal Aviation Administration
announced Tuesday the agency will present its 2007 Excellence in
Aviation Research Awards to Professor Ian A. Waitz, Ph.D.,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the United States
Air Force B-52 Aircraft Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) Fuels Research
Team.
"Aviation needs to continue to get greener," said Dan Elwell,
FAA’s Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning and
Environment, "and this award goes to people who are making it
happen. Dr. Waitz and the Air Force team are taking the steps to
put a big dent in aviation’s environmental footprint. Their
work is going to make a difference across the face of our entire
planet."
Waitz is the MIT Jerome C. Hunsaker professor of aeronautics and
astronautics, and has just been named head of that department. He
directs the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions
Reduction (PARTNER), a FAA/NASA/Transport Canada-sponsored Center
of Excellence. His key area of expertise is modeling and evaluating
climate, local air quality and noise impacts of aviation, including
assessing options to mitigate these impacts.
Waitz has written 70 technical publications, including
PARTNER’s 2005 landmark report to the US Congress, "Aviation
and the Environment: A National Vision Statement, Framework for
Goals and Recommended Actions." He holds three patents, and has
consulted for many national and international organizations. The
renowned environmental research leader has fostered the
understanding of emissions and technical noise aspects. His work
has produced sophisticated tools that quantify the complex
relationships of noise emission impacts, enabling decision-makers
to base policy and regulation on robust, hard data.
As ANN reported, the United
States Air Force B-52 Aircraft Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) Fuels Research
Team makes history as the first in the Air Force to certify a
synthetic fuel blend for its B-52 Fleet. The F-T process for
synthesizing fuel could decrease our nation’s dependence on
foreign oil. Also, B-52 tests of the F-T blended fuel have shown
reduced exhaust smoke and particulate emissions. The data gathered
from these tests will be leveraged by aircraft system managers to
accelerate their F-T/JP-8 fuel blend certification process, saving
millions of dollars. The B-52 F-T team procedures and methodology
have been proven sound by independent review, and will be used on
the C-17 and other aircraft with a goal of total Air Force fleet
certification to use F-T fuel blends.
The team also has worked closely with the commercial aviation
community, and supports the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuel
Initiative. Qualifying the C-17, which uses commercially derived
turbofans, will provide valuable data for the certification of
alternative fuels for civil aviation.
This is the 10th year that the prestigious Excellence in
Aviation Research Award has been presented. The awards are given
annually to individuals and/or institutions outside the FAA whose
research contributions have resulted in a significantly safer, more
efficient national airspace system
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