Industry & Applied R&D
Automotive & Aerospace Research: Data, Standards, Funders
Research in automotive and aerospace engineering runs on a small set of shared institutions. In the United States, NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate funds work through four programmes (Advanced Air Vehicles, Airspace Operations and Safety, Integrated Aviation Systems, Transformative Aeronautics Concepts) and maintains the National Wind Tunnel facilities, while the Department of Energy's Transportation Technologies Office funds vehicle research with the national laboratories, industry and universities. In Europe, EASA combines certification, rulemaking, safety analysis and its own research projects, and ICAO sets the international standards that member states adopt.
What people in the field must get right is largely regulatory and evidentiary. Road vehicles are governed by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards in 49 CFR Part 571, which NHTSA writes and enforces, and by electronic-systems practice under ISO 26262 and its ASIL levels. Aircraft software assurance follows DO-178C, with design assurance levels A to E set by the severity of the failure condition. Suppliers in both sectors work under ISO 9001-based quality schemes such as AS9100. Technology maturity is reported on the 1 to 9 Technology Readiness Level scale that NASA developed, which funders in the United States and Europe now use.
The evidence base is public and reusable. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System has recorded fatal US traffic crashes since 1975, the Aviation Safety Reporting System collects voluntary incident reports, NTSB investigations produce safety recommendations, and the NASA STI Repository holds technical reports in the millions. Learned societies such as SAE International, AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society publish the standards and journals that researchers cite. Specific sub-fields, from crash safety to drones, have their own hubs.
New to the field? What is Automotive & Aerospace? →
Reviewed 5 November 2026 by CASRAI Editorial Board
- NASA ARMD(read 5 November 2026)
- DOE Transportation Technologies Office(read 5 November 2026)
- EASA about(read 5 November 2026)
- NASA ASRS overview(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: AIAA(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: SAE International(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: FARS(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: Euro NCAP(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: NTSB(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: IIHS(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: Transportation Research Board(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: ICAO(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: DO-178C(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: ISO 26262(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: AS9100(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: FMVSS(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: Technology readiness level(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: Accident Analysis & Prevention(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: Royal Aeronautical Society(read 5 November 2026)
- Wikipedia: NASA STI Program(read 5 November 2026)
Field at a glance
Journals
- Accident Analysis & Prevention
- Peer-reviewed bimonthly journal on preventing accidents, published by Elsevier for the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine; established 1969.Website ↗
- The Aeronautical Journal (Royal Aeronautical Society)
- The Society's journal, listed as running from 1897 to date; the Society also publishes the Journal of Aeronautical History.Website ↗
Societies
- SAE International
- Standards body and professional association begun in 1905 as the Society of Automobile Engineers; covers automotive, aerospace and commercial vehicles; its documents are voluntary.Website ↗
- AIAA
- Founded 1963 by merger of the American Rocket Society and the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences; publishes AIAA Journal, Journal of Aircraft and runs the SciTech and Aviation forums.Website ↗
Funders and programmes
- NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate
- Runs AAVP, AOSP, IASP and TACP; its AETC office maintains NASA's National Wind Tunnel facilities, such as the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Ames.Website ↗
- DOE Transportation Technologies Office
- Funds vehicle research with national laboratories, industry and universities; technology areas include batteries, mobility systems, lightweight materials and aviation.Website ↗
- EASA research
- The EU aviation safety agency also runs research projects, publishes research reports and maintains an AI Roadmap.Website ↗
Archives, facilities and data
- Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
- NHTSA database of fatal US traffic crashes since 1975; a crash counts if a death occurs within 30 days, with data collected by an agency in each jurisdiction.Website ↗
- NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS)
- Voluntary incident reports from pilots, controllers and others; reporters may be eligible for protection from civil penalty; publishes CALLBACK.Website ↗
- NTSB investigations
- Independent US agency that determines probable cause of civil aviation and certain highway, rail and pipeline accidents; issues safety recommendations but cannot enforce them.Website ↗
- IIHS and HLDI
- Insurer-funded crash testing and insurance loss data; IIHS rates vehicles Good, Acceptable, Marginal or Poor, including small overlap tests since 2012.Website ↗
- Euro NCAP
- Voluntary car safety programme founded in 1996 in Leuven; 0 to 5 star ratings from adult, child, vulnerable road user and safety assist scores.Website ↗
Standards and formats
- Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
- Codified at 49 CFR Part 571 under the 1966 Act; 100-series crash avoidance, 200-series crashworthiness, 300-series post-crash survivability.Website ↗
- ISO 26262 road vehicle functional safety
- Covers safety-related electrical and electronic systems; the 2018 edition has 12 parts and rates risk from ASIL A to D, with QM below.Website ↗
- DO-178C
- RTCA/EUROCAE standard for airborne software certification, in use from 2012; design assurance levels A (catastrophic) to E (no safety effect).Website ↗
- AS9100
- Aerospace quality standard that incorporates ISO 9001; Rev D (2016) adds product safety and counterfeit parts prevention.Website ↗
- ICAO Chicago Convention and Annexes
- Signed 1944 by 52 states; 19 Annexes carry the Standards and Recommended Practices developed through the Air Navigation Commission.Website ↗
- Technology Readiness Levels
- 1 to 9 maturity scale developed by NASA, used by DoD and ESA, in Horizon Europe, and standardised as ISO 16290:2013.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Preprints and indexes
- NASA STI Repository (NTRS)
- Public access point to NASA's technical information, with over 4.3 million metadata records and over 28,000 documents from the predecessor agency NACA.Website ↗
- TRID
- Transportation index from the Transportation Research Board, combining the TRIS database with the OECD ITRD database.Website ↗
20 pages across 3 topic areas
Laboratory Operations & Safety
- Advanced Air Mobility (AAM): Definition, Aircraft Types and Regulation
What advanced air mobility (AAM) means in U.S. law, which aircraft types it covers, how they are certified and the dated policy timeline to 2026.…
- Aircraft Noise: How It Is Certified, Measured and Managed
ICAO noise certification chapters (Ch 2 to Ch 16), how DNL exposure differs from certification, and the 14 CFR Part 150 land-use line.…
- Airworthiness: Definition, Certificates and Duties
What airworthiness means, how FAA certificates are issued and kept valid, and who holds the continuing-airworthiness duty.…
- AS9100D Standard: Scope, Clauses, and QMS Guide
A complete guide to the AS9100D quality management standard for aviation, space, and defense, detailing key clauses, OASIS tracking, and supplier comp…
- AUVSI: What the Uncrewed Systems Association Is and Does
AUVSI is the nonprofit uncrewed systems association behind XPONENTIAL and Green UAS. What it is, what it is not, and what its labels mean for research…
- Aviation Safety: SMS Definition and Regulation
Aviation safety defined from 14 CFR Part 5 and ICAO Annex 19: hazard versus risk, the four SMS components and State versus operator duties.…
- CORSIA: Aviation Carbon Offsetting and MRV Guide
CORSIA regulates international flight emissions under ICAO Annex 16. Explore MRV compliance rules, eligible fuels (SAF/LCAF), and baseline offsetting…
- Designated Engineering Representative (DER): FAA Role Explained
FAA Designated Engineering Representative (DER) explained: appointment, company vs consultant types, Form 8110-3 limits and independence rules.…
- Drive Cycle: Meaning, Types and Dynamometer Use
A drive cycle is a standardized speed-time trace for dynamometer tests, and also a driving pattern for OBD readiness. EPA and WLTC schedules compared.…
- Emission Standards: How Limits Work, US Tier 3 vs Euro 7
How vehicle emission standards are built (pollutant, test, useful life, averaging), with US Tier 3 limits and Euro 7 application dates.…
- Euro NCAP: Crash Test Protocols and Safety Ratings
Euro NCAP evaluates vehicle crashworthiness and active safety across four core stages, using standardized MPDB barrier tests, THOR dummies, and star r…
- KITTI Dataset: Contents, Sensors and Licence Terms
What the KITTI dataset contains, which sensors recorded it, what the raw release omits and what its licence and citation requests mean.…
- nuScenes Dataset: Contents, Schema, Extensions and Access
What nuScenes contains, how its download and schema are organised, which extensions exist and how access terms work for research teams.…
- Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS): Contents and How to Read One
What a type certificate data sheet (TCDS) is, its place in the type certificate under 14 CFR 21.41, and a section map and checklist for reading one.…
- Vehicle Emissions: Pollutants, Standards and How They Are Measured
Vehicle emissions explained from EPA sources: regulated pollutants, the 2020 NOx, VOC and PM shares, and the dynamometer drive schedules used to test…
- WLTP: What the Test Procedure Is, WLTC Classes and Phases
What WLTP is, how the WLTC speed trace is run, which of its four vehicle classes applies, and the EU phase-in dates from 2017 to 2019.…
Research Methods & Statistics
- Gauge R&R: ANOVA Method, Formulas & Lab Guide
A rigorous guide to Gauge R&R: two-way ANOVA decomposition, variance formulas, AIAG acceptance criteria, worked arithmetic, and Excel, R, and Python c…
- What Is Aerospace Engineering? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A complete guide to aerospace engineering: what it studies, its major sub-disciplines, the real federal funding landscape (NASA, NSF, DoD), research m…
Scholarly Publishing
- FAA Tech Center (William J. Hughes Technical Center): What It Is and Does
The FAA Technical Center: the FAA's NAS research and test base near Atlantic City, its NAFEC history, size and where its programs are described.…
- NASA ASRS: What the Aviation Safety Reporting System Is and How to Search It
What NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System is, its confidentiality and immunity rules, how to search the database, and its limits for research.…
