WASHINGTON, DC — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has selected Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) as the lead of a team that will form the new Air Transportation Center of Excellence (COE) for General Aviation. Other members include Florida A&M University, University of Alaska, Wichita State University and the University of North Dakota.
Congressman John L. Mica (R-Winter Park, FL), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, stated "this designation reconfirms that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is one of the premiere general aviation research institutions in the nation."
Centers of Excellence are designated on behalf of the FAA Administrator following rigorous competition and a formal evaluation based on criteria mandated in Public Law 101-508, the FAA Research and Engineering and Development Authorization Act of 1990. Through the Air Transportation Center of Excellence program, the FAA enhances internal research efforts and accesses academic research, striving to expedite the application in new aviation technologies to benefit the aviation community and the flying public.
By establishing major research centers throughout the country to advance aviation-related technologies, the FAA proactively works toward creating a pool of professionals trained in aviation-related research areas; helps finance graduate education; fosters cooperative FAA-university-industry research and development; and ultimately improves the national airspace system. These centers form a cumulative repository of knowledge and they perform the entire spectrum from basic research to engineering development and prototyping, through the awards of contracts and grants.
ERAU, the world’s largest fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research and consulting activities. Moreover, this university educates 23,000 students through the master’s level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida and Prescott, Arizona, at more than 100 teaching sites in the United States and Europe as well as through distance learning.