NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics (FA) Program addresses national challenges in air transportation by enabling advanced technologies that will improve the performance and environmental impact of future air vehicles.

The public and economic benefits from continued growth in the air transport of passengers and cargo depend on future air vehicles that meet these challenges with as much flexibility and affordability as possible.

The FA Program works on solutions using a strategy that includes these key elements:

1. Generate the knowledge and technology necessary for overcoming the national challenges in air transportation.
2. Sustain an optimized, balanced R&D portfolio from the basic knowledge of physical phenomenon to the understanding of complex interactions that occur at the system level.
3. Master the fundamental science and technology of the flight regimes.
4. Engage the academic community and industry as active contributors in the planning and conduct of research through competitive solicitations and mutually beneficial partnerships.
5. Coordinate planned research with other Government agencies to avoid duplication of efforts and to leverage complementary investments and knowledge sharing.
6. Appropriately disseminate research progress routinely among all participants and with the end-user community.

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Featured in Other Media: SST Research: Breaking New Barriers

The January 2013 issue of Aerospace America contained this article about the evolution of commercial passenger supersonic flight to today's research, including NASA's into making supersonic flight over land possible. This article is copyrighted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is used with their permission.
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