Skip to page content

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.

Commentary
Options for Regulating Small Unmanned Aerial Systems
The FAA predicts that there will be between 2.75 and 4.47 million small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) flown in the United States by 2021. As the skies become more crowded, action is needed from the federal government and sUAS manufacturers and operators to ensure the public's safety.
Nov 6, 2017
Brochure
Every Day Is a School Day: Natalie W. Crawford's 50 Years at RAND
Natalie Crawford's career at RAND spans five decades, during which she has advanced from new analyst to Project AIR FORCE director to RAND senior fellow. This biography is predominately an oral history as more than 60 people from RAND, industry, academia, and family participated in interviews to describe Crawford's life and career.
Oct 30, 2017
Commentary
AI's Promise and Risks
Artificial intelligence seems to be advancing faster than efforts to understand its potential consequences, good and bad. And discussions about AI often veer toward extremes. More balanced, rigorous analysis is needed to help shape policies that mitigate AI's risks and maximize its benefits.
Oct 24, 2017
Report
The Energy Implications of Drones for Package Delivery: A Geographic Information System Comparison
In this report, we use a geographic information system analysis to compare truck versus delivery drone energy use.
Sep 28, 2017
Report
Design Perspectives on Delivery Drones
This report explores the vehicle design aspects of delivery drones, including flight efficiency, energy consumption, noise, and safety, which are central to the viability of delivery drones.
Sep 28, 2017
Commentary
Chinese Bomber Flights Around Taiwan: For What Purpose?
Recent bomber flights near Taiwan represent the most concerted training regimen yet aimed at improving Chinese airpower. China seeks to enhance the PLA Air Force's capabilities and signal Beijing's will to defend its territorial claims against the U.S. and its regional allies and partners, especially Taiwan and Japan.
Sep 13, 2017
Report
Exploring Parallel Development in the Context of Agile Acquisition: Analytical Support to the Air Superiority 2030 Enterprise Capability Collaboration Team
In providing analytical support to the U.S. Air Force, RAND researchers explore how a parallel development approach in an agile acquisition environment can help more rapidly transition new technologies and concepts to the fleet.
Aug 25, 2017
Report
Enhancing Management of the Joint Future Vertical Lift Initiative
It is possible to achieve some degree of commonality without joint program management and identifies lessons from historical experience and how they apply to the joint Future Vertical Lift initiative.
Aug 14, 2017
Report
What's the Buzz? The City-Scale Impacts of Drone Delivery
This report examines the developing technology for using drones to deliver packages and attempts to identify the societal impacts. In particular, the author estimates the potential effects on energy consumption, aerial congestion, and other outcomes.
Aug 9, 2017
Dissertation
Search and Rescue in the Arctic: Is the U.S. Prepared?
Explores the U.S. capability to handle the Arctic Search and Rescue (SAR) Agreement, a landmark treaty that gives the U.S. responsibility for conducting SAR in a slice of territory that surrounds Alaska and stretches to the North Pole.
Jun 19, 2017
Report
A New Methodology for Conducting Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA): With Illustrations from the F-22 Product Support BCA
This document explains how to apply guidance on project evaluation to product support business case analyses in a way that allows senior Department of Defense decisionmakers to use net present value to compare courses of action.
Jun 13, 2017
Testimony
Amphibious Operations in Contested Environments
Amphibious forces can be useful in a variety of settings. But the reach and lethality of today's weapons make parts of amphibious operations especially challenging.
May 18, 2017
Report
Stress and Dissatisfaction in the Air Force's Remotely Piloted Aircraft Community
The demand for the Air Force's remotely piloted aircraft has spiked in the past few years. Crews feel stressed due to heavy workloads, understaffing, and other factors. What can the Air Force do to mitigate these stressors?
Apr 27, 2017
Tool
User's Guide for the Total Force Blue-Line (TFBL) Model
This user's guide contains detailed instructions for running the Total Force Blue-Line model, including steps to follow, the inputs to use, how the inputs can be generated, and a list of steps for generating red-line/blue-line charts.
Apr 21, 2017
Report
Chinese Investment in U.S. Aviation Is Not a Threat to Competitiveness
Since 2005, Chinese companies have acquired, merged, or established joint ventures with more than a dozen U.S. aviation companies. The investment has been limited to smaller manufacturers of technologies not relevant to commercial or military aircraft, likely due to effective U.S. export and foreign investment regulations.
Apr 10, 2017
Report
Needs, Effectiveness, and Gap Assessment for Key A-10C Missions: An Overview of Findings
This report analyzes several missions assigned to the A-10C aircraft and the needs this mission set could generate over the next five years. It also assesses existing and planned forces' effectiveness and capability gaps in performing those missions.
Mar 2, 2017
Report
Air Force Strategic Planning
With the U.S. Air Force facing pressure to reduce its headquarters staff, many question the utility of strategic planning and the need to produce public strategy documents. A look at past efforts finds that strategic planning is still needed, but perhaps not in its current form.
Feb 28, 2017
Report
Smarter Power, Stronger Partners, Volume II: Trends in Force Projection Against Potential Adversaries
This book describes scenarios to test whether the anti-access and area-denial threat to U.S. force projection is growing more severe. They describe plausible U.S. and adversary military actions given current operational capabilities and approaches.
Feb 8, 2017
Report
Defining an Approach for Future Close Air Support Capability
This report helps to define an approach to ensure that the Army has a viable close air support capability in light of the possible retirement of the A-10.
Jan 30, 2017
Journal Article
Non-State Actors in North Korean Airspace
In previous decades, going back to the Korean War, the South Korean government used to send balloons carrying propaganda into North Korean territory.
Jan 10, 2017

Previous
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Next

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Brien Alkire

Senior Researcher

Brien Alkire is a senior researcher at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He leads and conducts research in C4ISR and national security space policy. He serves as director, Staff Development and Education in RAND Project AIR FORCE, and was previously an associate and acting…
Bradley Wilson

Senior Information Scientist

Bradley Wilson is a senior information scientist at RAND with experience in government acquisition and applications of modeling & simulation to solve policy challenges. His research areas include unmanned systems, software acquisition and engineering, information architectures, networks,…

Explore Our People »