Air Transportation

blog

COVID-19 Testing in Schools, Family Caregivers, U.S. Entrepreneurship: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on COVID-19 testing in schools, giving a voice to family caregivers, preparing for daylight saving time, and more.

blog

Health Care Price Transparency, COVID-19 Vaccinations, Gun Laws: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on what private health plans pay compared to what Medicare pays, when COVID-19's global spread really began, laws that could reduce firearm deaths, and more.

blog

Air Travel Data to Predict COVID Risk, Heatwave Planning, Caregiver Time Off: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on using air travel data to predict COVID risk, planning for a heat wave during the pandemic, why caregivers need time off, and more.

blog

Coronavirus Outbreak, Drones, the U.S. Power Grid: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the intensifying coronavirus outbreak, cyber threats from drones, the vulnerabilities of the U.S. power grid, and more.

blog

U.S.-Turkish Relations, Airports, Opioids: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the future of the U.S.-Turkish partnership, helping America's commercial airports meet rising demand, the opioid crisis, and more.

commentary

Approaching a 'New Normal': What the Drone Attack in Venezuela Portends

The attempt to assassinate Venezuelan President Maduro showed that drones are easy to use and difficult to defend against. Commercial off-the-shelf technology is easy to acquire. It is imperative that counterterrorism specialists begin planning a robust response to the threat.

Colin P. Clarke

commentary

Toy Drones and Twitter: The Ability of Individuals to Wreak Large-Scale Havoc

Lone wolves or small groups could use drones, virtual currencies, encrypted communications, and artificial intelligence for nefarious purposes. The threat is even greater when these technologies are used in conjunction with disinformation spread over social media.

Colin P. Clarke

commentary

Drones Could Deliver Change to Africa

Drones could transform Africa's urban and rural infrastructure and enhance its agricultural productivity. But deployment of drones on the continent faces technological, economic, social, and legal, and regulatory challenges.

Shira Efron

commentary

How to Prevent Drones Colliding in Crowded Skies

The federal government should work with private firms to develop drone traffic management systems and test drone designs. This could help stimulate the development of drone aviation. It could also help modernize the air traffic control system.

Kenneth Kuhn, William Welser IV, et al.

commentary

Out of Line: How to Better Protect Airports from Terrorist Attacks

In airport security, it's not the size of a potential terrorist bomb that matters most, it's where it detonates. Fortunately, new technologies may present opportunities to get travelers out of line and keep them safe.

Henry H. Willis @HenryHWillis, Michael A. Brown

commentary

Regulating Drone Airspace Using 'Smart Markets'

With commercially operated autonomous drones potentially on the horizon, a policy problem is likely to emerge: allocation of scarce airspace and preferred flight paths. 'Smart markets' could help.

David Manheim, John F. Raffensperger, et al.

commentary

TSA Flunked Its Security Test Big Time — Now What?

We have to accept that humans, no matter how well-trained they are or how dedicated they are to their mission, are just not very good at maintaining laser-like focus while performing repetitive tasks. That does not mean airport security can ever be completely given over to machines.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

Are Airport Security Screeners Looking for the Wrong Things?

An investigation revealed that the TSA has failed in contraband testing, at a 95 percent rate. This shouldn't be perceived as an indictment of TSA workers. But it may be an indictment of the particular assignments they've been given.

K. Jack Riley

commentary

TSA's Cellphone Rule Part of Deadly Race

While placing explosives inside a cellphone is plausible, it is almost impossible to do so with iPhones without rendering them non-functional, which is why the TSA is now checking cell phones are actually working.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

blog

Like Flight 370, the MH17 Crash in Ukraine Could Remain a Mystery

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was reportedly shot down yesterday near the Russia-Ukraine border. But like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished in March, what happened to MH17 is shrouded in mystery.

commentary

3 Weapons That Threaten Commercial Planes

It's relatively rare that commercial aircraft are targeted with weapons built primarily to attack military aircraft, but there are a range of potential threats from such weapons. Given that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was reportedly at 33,000 feet when contact was lost, it seems impossible that the attack could have occurred using a shoulder-fired missile.

Carl Rhodes

commentary

The Breach of Security at San Jose's Airport Raises Broader Issues

Those charged with security must think in terms of 360-degree security—not only screening passengers coming through the terminal, but also preventing unauthorized access to the aircraft from the air operations side of airport.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

The Flight 370 Mystery Gets Political

Why might unnamed sources try to link Anwar to a potential hijacking of an aircraft carrying 239 passengers? Possibly to divert attention from the government's ineffective management of the search in the days since the plane's disappearance.

Jonah Blank

commentary

Want to Create Problems? Arm the TSA

With its current 47,000 screeners, an armed TSA would become the federal government's largest armed entity outside of the military. In the eyes of many, arming TSA screeners would change the image of the organization from a service aimed at guaranteeing safe air travel to an unwanted imposition of federal authority.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

Airport Violence—Not a New Phenomenon

Shootings at airports are nothing new, writes Brian Michael Jenkins. In fact, they have regularly occurred worldwide in recent years. The motives have included terrorism, crime, and mental illness.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

More Secure or Less Free?

It is thus not surprising that people report a willingness to trade convenience, money, and liberty for security. Legal precedent reinforces that decreased civil liberties may be accepted when confronting existential threats with demonstrably effective security—to a point, writes Henry H. Willis.

Henry H. Willis @HenryHWillis

commentary

Fake Boarding Pass Fears Inflated

Instead of ratcheting back the PreCheck program because of manufactured fears about security lapses, TSA should be encouraged to expand this program to more airlines, more airports and more infrequent travelers, write Jack Riley and Lily Ablon.

K. Jack Riley, Lillian Ablon

commentary

Expect More Drone Use Like Recent Israeli Episode

Practically any country that aspires to an indigenous aviation industry (as most countries do, even if only for national pride) has a reasonably capable, medium-altitude unmanned drone system in development or flying already, writes Ted Harshberger.

Edward R. Harshberger

commentary

TSA Procedures Need to Be Remade from Scratch

It is time for a new approach to meeting America's next-generation aviation security needs, one that dodges the influence of politics and bureaucracies and relies instead on the resources and objectivity of independent researchers operating from a clean slate, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

Three Ways to Improve Airport Screening

The TSA's pilot “Pre-check” program that pre-screens travelers who volunteer for it is an overdue advance in security, but it does not address some larger issues surrounding America's airports, writes K. Jack Riley.

K. Jack Riley

commentary

The Unmentionable Costs of Airline Security

For most of the past decade, the U.S. has pursued policies with very little regard to the costs they impose on travelers or the net reduction in risk that they generate, writes K. Jack Riley.

K. Jack Riley

commentary

Is it Time to Consider a New Approach to Airline Security?

It may be possible that the development and deployment of improved security technologies and reconfigurations of security checkpoints will keep security one step ahead of terrorist adversaries, but it also may be an appropriate time to explore fundamentally new approaches, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

What We Can Learn from the Christmas Day Bombing Attempt

President Obama's nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration said he would like U.S. airport screening to more closely resemble Israel's. Perhaps attention is turning to what really matters about the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253: what it can teach us about aviation security, write

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins, Bruce Butterworth, et al.

commentary

Speed Low-Risk Travelers Through Increased Security

Published commentary by RAND staff: Speed Low-Risk Travelers Through Increased Security, in Los Angeles Business Journal.

K. Jack Riley, Henry H. Willis @HenryHWillis

commentary

Fliers Have Reason to Jettison Jitters

Published commentary by RAND staff.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

Put Brains Behind Airway Safety

Published commentary by RAND staff.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

Get Used to It: Our Airports Are Vulnerable to Terrorism

Published commentary by RAND staff.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

commentary

Safeguarding the Skies

Published commentary by RAND staff.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins