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Aircraft

Research insights into aircraft selection and maintenance, crew training, test facilities, and airspace access are valuable to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and U.S. and allied air forces. RAND studies have also examined military air power and aerospace industry issues.

Report
U.S. Forest Service Should Consider a Different Mix of Aircraft to Fight Wildfires
The U.S. Forest Service should upgrade its large airborne firefighting fleet to include more amphibious scooper aircraft, with air tankers and helicopters in a supporting role during the initial attack of fires before they become large.
Jul 30, 2012
Research Brief
Identifying a Cost-Effective Aviation Fleet for the U.S. Forest Service
This brief provides an overview of a RAND study to support the U.S. Forest Service in determining the composition of a fleet of airtankers, scoopers, and helicopters that would minimize the total social costs of wildfires.
Jul 30, 2012
News Release
U.S. Forest Service Should Consider a Different Mix of Aircraft to Fight Wildfires
The U.S. Forest Service should upgrade its large airborne firefighting fleet to include more amphibious scooper aircraft, with air tankers and helicopters in a supporting role during the initial attack of fires before they become large.
Jul 29, 2012
Report
Understanding Potential Air Force Roles in Promoting International Energy Security
Energy purchases made by the U.S. DoD do not influence world oil prices, making cutting fuel use the only effective choice to reduce what the Pentagon spends on it. The U.S. military can continue to have an important role in promoting stability in major oil producing regions and by helping protect the flow of energy through major transit corridors and on the high seas.
Jun 19, 2012
News Release
U.S. Military's Role with Petroleum Is to Assure Security
Energy purchases made by the U.S. Department of Defense do not influence world oil prices, making cutting fuel use the only effective choice to reduce what the Pentagon spends on petroleum fuels.
Jun 18, 2012
Report
Methodologies for Analyzing Remotely Piloted Aircraft in Future Roles and Missions
This briefing describes a suite of tools to help the Air Force think through future roles for remotely piloted aircraft.
May 30, 2012
Report
Methodology for Constructing a Modernization Roadmap for Air Force Automatic Test Systems
The Air Force is planning to modernize its automatic testing capabilities for electronics by moving to modern, common families of test equipment. This report focuses on the economic aspect of this process.
May 24, 2012
Commentary
Should Boeing Fear China's Aerospace Industry? Not in This Decade but Maybe Later
The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China will probably begin producing its first large commercial aircraft later this decade. But the C919 is unlikely to be technologically or commercially competitive when it arrives, writes Chad J. R. Ohlandt.
May 14, 2012
Commentary
The Path to the Right Active/Reserve Mix: You Need to Understand Cost Per Output
The cost of providing ready aircrews, maintainers, and aircraft is one measure. But the cost of generating flying hours and satisfying ongoing operational demands must also be considered, writes Albert A. Robbert.
Apr 16, 2012
Report
Incentive Pay for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Career Fields
An econometric assessment of the effectiveness of incentive pays for retaining remotely piloted aircraft pilots and sensor operators.
Mar 6, 2012
Report
The Future of Air Force Motion Imagery Exploitation: Lessons from the Commercial World
Commercial television production practices inspire an approach to managing exploitation of the Air Force's rapidly growing motion imagery collections.
Mar 6, 2012
Report
Options for and Costs of Retaining C-17 Aircraft Production-Only Tooling
When production ceases, tools must be used elsewhere, disposed of, or stored; the authors examine these tooling retention issues for the C-17 cargo aircraft.
Feb 23, 2012
Report
Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Logistics Applications
An evaluation of potential logistics applications for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) determines whether they are technically feasible, operationally feasible, and more cost-effective than other options. Six factors are identified that can be used to compare UAS and non-UAS based solutions to logistics tasks.
Jan 25, 2012
Report
Keeping a Competitive U.S. Military Aircraft Industry Aloft: Findings from an Analysis of the Industrial Base
Evaluates the near-term and long-term risks and costs of the United States having little or no competition among companies involved with designing, developing, and producing fixed-wing military aircraft and related systems.
Jan 16, 2012
Report
RAND Project AIR FORCE Annual Report 2011
This annual report describes selected RAND Project AIR FORCE research during 2011 in the areas of strategy and doctrine; force modernization and employment; manpower, personnel, and training; and resource management.
Dec 22, 2011
Journal Article
Searching for the Strategy
Unmanned aerial systems have enormous potential, but the MoD lacks an overarching UAS vision.
Dec 1, 2011
Report
Root Cause Analyses of Nunn-McCurdy Breaches, Volume 1: Zumwalt-Class Destroyer, Joint Strike Fighter, Longbow Apache, and Wideband Global Satellite
Congressional concern with cost overruns in some major defense acquisition programs led to an investigation of root causes by examining program reviews, analyzing data, participating in contractor briefings, and holding meetings with stakeholders.
Nov 7, 2011
Journal Article
When Will the U.S. Drone War End?
The next president of the United States needs to answer this question: When, and under what conditions, will the U.S. government stop using drones to bomb suspected terrorists around the world?
Nov 1, 2011
Report
Pricing Strategies for NASA Wind-Tunnel Facilities
The authors explore six potential approaches to pricing the use of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wind-tunnel test facilities, and they evaluate each approach against three criteria -- efficiency, fiscal impact, and fairness.
Oct 4, 2011
Report
Analysis of the Air Force Logistics Enterprise: Evaluation of Global Repair Network Options for Supporting the C-130
Reallocating C-130 maintenance workloads between mission-generation units and centralized repair facilities offers efficiency and effectiveness benefits to the Air Force, and integrated maintenance concepts may offer additional benefits.
Sep 29, 2011

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Rachel M. Burns

Senior Quantitative Analyst

Rachel M. Burns is a senior quantitative analyst at the RAND Corporation. During her tenure at RAND, she has worked on projects focused on disaster response and recovery operations, neighborhood influences on health, substance abuse and drug policy, unmanned aerial vehicles, the mental health…
Shane Tierney

Technical Analyst

Shane Tierney (he/him) is a technical analyst at the RAND Corporation. He has worked with the RAND Arroyo Center, National Defense Research Institute, Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center and Project Air Force on a range of governmental and defense-related projects in such areas as…

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