The FAA Joint Advanced Materials and Structures (JAMS) Center of Excellence and FAA Materials and Structures Branch Technical Meeting was held May 24-26 at Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research.

The JAMS Center of Excellence is comprised of two groups: the Center for Advanced Materials in Transport Aircraft Structures (AMTAS) and the Center of Excellence for Composites & Advanced Materials (CECAM). The meeting brought together over 70 attendees that represented a broad range of industry, academia, and government. This meeting provided a broad based peer review of the research sponsored by the FAA in the materials and structures area.

More than 20 commercial aviation organizations, 12 universities, and 10 representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and other government agencies attended the meeting. The event host was NIAR’s CECAM; this was the first of what will be an annual technical peer review of the research in progress at JAMS member institutions. The purpose of the meeting was to review technical progress, to promote interchange between researchers, and to gain feedback from industry, government, and academia regarding the center’s research direction, efficacy, and relevance to civil aviation needs. A number of independent senior advanced materials and structures specialists were part of the audience and they will provide the FAA detailed feedback on each research project.

After the research reviews, representatives from industry provided feedback on the projects and results; the current FAA focused research areas; and additional industry research needs. Reviewers were impressed with the level of effort and the detail of research. A question and comment period for each individual project review provided immediate feedback and assessments to the researchers by the reviewers.