New Entrants Research Focus Areas RFI.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

FAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Office

1. Purpose This is a Request for Information (RFI) from the FAA UAS Integration Office. The purpose of this RFI is to:

• Seek feedback from aviation stakeholders on new entrants (e.g. Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Advanced Air Mobility, etc.) research areas conducive to supporting and/or informing standards, technology development, etc. for the safe, secure, and efficient integration of new entrants into the National Airspace System (NAS).

2. General Information This RFI is being issued in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acquisition Management System Section 3.2.1.2.1. Interested parties are advised that:

• This is not a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposal (RFP);

• The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals;

• The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing the RFI response or any follow on responses to additional FAA requests, if necessary, to the RFI;

• Any costs associated with responding to this RFI are incurred solely at the interested party’s expense;

• FAA, at its sole discretion, may contact one, some, all, or none of the respondents to the RFI and ask for additional information; and

• Responses to this RFI and any follow-up inquiries by the Government are for informational purposes only and do not constitute a promise or obligation of future business with the FAA.

3. Background

Research is foundational for the safe integration of new entrants into the NAS, including but not limited to UAS and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles. Research enables informed policies, procedures, regulations, and operations to support the safe and secure integration of new entrants into the NAS. The FAA implements and updates a common framework for characterizing research to meet the agency’s mission and goals for safely integrating new entrants. This framework enables strategic planning and prioritizing of research investments to inform data-driven decisions for rulemaking, policy, certification, and operations.

4. Request for Information

Based on your understanding of the anticipated expansion and evolution of business cases and/or operational use cases for new entrants in the National Airspace System (NAS), is the following set of research areas adequate to support and/or inform standards, technology development, etc. for the safe, secure, and efficient integration of new entrants (e.g.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Advanced Air Mobility, etc.) into the NAS.? If not, please comment on and/or add to this list.

Proposed New Entrants Integration Research Focus Areas

• Beyond Visual-Line-of-Sight Operations

• Command and Control Link Technologies

• Traffic Management including:

o UAS Traffic Management (UTM) o Extensible Traffic Management (xTM) o Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) o Evolution of Air Traffic Management (ATM)

• Noise and other societal and environmental impacts

• Industry consensus standards including:

o Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) o Aircraft-to-Everything (A2X) o Detect and Avoid (DAA)

• Collisions between new entrants vehicles of various sizes traveling at various speeds

• Electronic Conspicuity

• Human Factors including:

o Human-system interface o Procedures o Pilot/crew qualifications

• Advanced Automation including:

o Artificial Intelligence o Machine Learning

• Infrastructure Enablers for new entrants including:

o Airports/Droneports/Vertiports

• Risks of Hazardous Materials aboard UAS as either cargo or as a power source

5. RFI Response Submission Instructions The following instructions apply to the submission of responses to this RFI:

• RFI responses must be submitted via electronic mail (e-mail) to the Contracting Officer, Karina Espinosa at karina.espinosa@faa.gov and Kristin Frantz (Kristin.frantz@faa.gov) no later than 3:00 PM Eastern Time on December 2, 2024.

• Responses should contain “New Entrants Research RFI Response” in the subject line of the e-mail.

• Responses should provide responses to the information requested in Section 4 of this

RFI.

• Files comprising the response to the RFI must not exceed five (5) pages in total.

• Files comprising the response to the RFI must be compatible with MS Office 365 or be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. No other form of submission will be accepted.

• If any of the information submitted is considered to be proprietary, the respondent is responsible for marking it accordingly.

• Submissions must include the following information for one or more points of contact for the respondent: name, title, telephone number, and e-mail address. Additionally, provide your company’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number from the System for Award Management (SAM.gov).

Please direct any inquiries regarding this matter to the FAA Contracting Officer, Karina Espinosa via e-mail at karina.espinosa@faa.gov

6. Government Use of RFI Responses

The FAA may or may not provide feedback on any of the submitted materials. The Government does not intend to release or distribute any of the information contained in the RFI responses.

Responses to this RFI will not be viewed by the FAA as a commitment by the respondents to submit a proposal for any competitive solicitations initiated by the FAA in relation to the services described in this RFI.

mailto:karina.espinosa@faa.gov mailto:Kristin.frantz@faa.gov mailto:karina.espinosa@faa.gov