DECEMBER 14, 2007 — The FAA has selected PARTNER director Ian A. Waitz as the recipient of its 2007 Excellence in Aviation Research Award. In announcing the decision, FAA Office of Research and Technology Development acting director Barry Scott wrote, "The evaluation panel and senior FAA officials unanimously selected Dr. Waitz for an individual award because of his ongoing, critical research on aviation's impact on the environment." In addition to directing the PARTNER program office, Waitz is lead investigator for a number of its research projects including Valuation and Trade-offs of Policy Options, the Energy Policy Act Study, and Alternative Fuels. He is particularly involved in developing the Aviation Environmental Portfolio Management Tool, a comprehensive software tools suite that will allow for thorough assessment of aviation environmental effects. Waitz is the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Excellence in Aviation Research Award is presented to individuals whose research contributions result in a significantly safer, more efficient national airspace system. A date and location have not yet been set for the award presentation.
DECEMBER 11, 2007 — PARTNER has released a report that providing information to ensuring that communities in proximity to airports are minimally affected by aviation-generated low-frequency noise. -more-
OCTOBER 24, 2007 — Several individuals associated with PARTNER offered testimony before a House Subcommittee on Aviation at an October 24, 2007 hearing on airport noise issues.
PARTNER-affiliated witnesses included FAA Office of Environment and Energy Director Carl Burleson; National Organization to Insure a Sound-controlled Environment Director Dennis McGrann; and Arlington Heights, Illinois Mayor Arlene J. Mulder.
In his statement, GAO Physical Infrastructures Director Gerald L. Dillingham described PARTNER in detail, noting, “FAA conducts a significant amount of its research on aviation noise issues, much of it through the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction.” Burleson and McGrann also drew the subcommittee’s attention to PARTNER.
In her role as chairwoman of the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, Mulder lauded PARTNER’s Continuous Descent Arrival (now known as Continuous Descent Approach) project. “The ONCC highly commends the FAA for working towards implementation of CDA at airports throughout the country.”
Copies of the testimonies are available on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Web site.
OCTOBER 5, 2007 — PARTNER has welcomed three new member organizations to its Advisory Board: the Air Line Pilots Association, the International Airline Passengers Association, and Opportunities for Meeting the Environmental challenge of Growth in Aviation. Read story
OCTOBER 5, 2007 — PARTNER has launched four new research projects:
SEPTEMBER 26, 2007 — PARTNER has announced that it is soliciting submissions for its Fourth Annual Joseph A. Hartman Student Paper Competition. The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students located anywhere in the world. Papers must relate to aircraft noise and/or emissions reduction. Prizes range from $200 to $5,000. Submission deadline is January 31, 2008.
JUNE 12, 2007 — Delta Air Lines’ contribution of facilities, aircraft, and personnel to support aircraft emissions research has drawn praise from PARTNER. Delta placed its Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport maintenance facility and six commercial aircraft at PARTNER’s disposal for the study, which is seeking to identify composition and characteristics of aviation emissions and determine their health impact. Read story
MAY 15, 2007 — Dismissing a “perception that somehow aviation doesn’t care about the environment,” Federal Aviation Administrator Marion C. Blakey, today told attendees at an International Civil Aviation Organization meeting on emissions that the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction is a reflection of the U.S. commitment to developing solutions to environmental challenges. “PARTNER is working,” Blakey said. Read story
MAY 2007 — FAA Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Environment Lourdes Maurice and PARTNER Director Ian Waitz have met with Roger Gardner, chief executive of Omega, and discussed an agreement for Omega and PARTNER to collaborate on several fronts, including modeling, measurements, alternative fuels, and economic assessment. Omega was formed in 2006 by the British government to help the aviation industry meet the environmental challenge. "This is an important step forward in our commitment to align U.S. and international aviation-related environmental research," Waitz said. Last fall, PARTNER and Europe's Environmentally Compatible Air Transport System signed a landmark "statement of common understanding" to collaborate on research that will provide the United States and Europe with research-substantiated tools to formulate policies related to aviation and the environment.
MAY 2007 — A team of researchers working on PARTNER emissions and emissions modeling projects has won a $350,000 Airport Cooperative Research Program award to "Summarize and Interpret Aircraft Gaseous and Particulate Emissions Data." The researchers are tasked with collecting and reviewing all available data from APEX 1-3 and the Delta Atlanta-Hartsfield and preparing a comprehensive report that will help the airport community and general public understand the data's ability to contribute to developing better air quality assessments in the airport environment. The report is due for completion by May 2008. The research team is lead by Phil Whitefield of U. Missouri, Rolla, who is lead investigator for PARTNER's Measurement of Emissions Project. Also on the team are Rick Miake-Lye, Ian Waitz, Sandy Webb, and Ted Thrasher.
MAY 7, 2007 — PARTNER is the focus of the Environment and Energy Initiatives section in the FAA’s newly-published 2006 R&D Annual Review. Read story
MARCH 31, 2007 — Dr. Liling Ren, a research engineer in the Georgia Institute of Technology, has won the First Place Graduate Paper Award in the 2007 PARTNER Joseph A. Hartman Student Paper Competition 2007 for his paper, "Modeling And Managing Separation For Continuous Descent Arrivals." Read story
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