USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

General

Composing the Go-To Human Factors Guide for Flight Deck Enhancements

Modern cockpits, also known as flight decks, have hundreds of switches, alerts, and displays, and pilots are trained to know what each one of them does or indicates. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) called on Volpe to develop a single-source reference document for all human factors...

How a Decades-Long Partnership Led to Safer Waterways around the World

U.S. DOT Volpe Center Director Anne Aylward recently contributed an article to Seaway Compass, the newsletter of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. In this newsletter, Aylward discusses the decades-long partnership between the Seaway and Volpe that has made waterways around the...

Measuring Traffic Performance through Innovative Low-Cost Solutions

Capturing travel data on commercial motor vehicles (CMV) is an essential component of improving and maintaining roadway safety. Through U.S. DOT’s Small Business Innovation Research program, one small business is addressing the limitations of current CMV data collection technologies with a new...

Robot Co-Pilot to the Rescue

Meet ALIAS, the robot co-pilot that can help fly a plane. ALIAS, which was developed under contract by an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, was recently tested on Volpe’s Boeing 737 simulator to see how it would react if a human pilot lost consciousness mid-flight during a simulated loss...

Integrating Space Vehicle Operations into the National Airspace System

Commercial space vehicle operators are becoming more common in the national airspace, and the number of orbital and sub-orbital passenger space flights is expected to increase significantly over the next decade. Volpe supports the FAA’s NextGen Space Vehicle Operations program to help reduce the...

Awardees Announced for U.S. DOT’s SBIR FY17.1 Solicitation

On March 21, the U.S. DOT SBIR program announced 15 recommendations for awards for SBIR’s fiscal year 17.1 solicitation. The awarded small businesses competed in a field that included 106 proposals for 9 research topics. The selected small businesses are conducting important research, leading to...