The Georgia Institute of Technology has been selected by the Federal Aviation Administration as part of a multi-university team for the new Center of Excellence for General Aviation.

Called Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility, and Sustainability (PEGASAS), the Center of Excellence will concentrate research and development efforts on general aviation safety issues including airport technology, propulsion and structures, airworthiness, flight safety, fire safety, human factors, system safety management and weather.

Along with Georgia Tech, PEGASAS will be led by Purdue University and Ohio State University as core integration members. Core team members include the Florida Institute of Technology, Iowa State University and Texas A&M University. PEGASAS affiliate members are: Arizona State University, Florida A&M, Hampton University, Kent State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Oklahoma State University, Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), Tufts University, Western Michigan University and University of Minnesota, Duluth.

“The new FAA Center of Excellence will reenergize and push the envelope of the general aviation sector while improving safety. We are excited and honored to be an integral part of this coalition of universities,” said Dimitri Mavris, Boeing Professor of Advanced Aerospace Systems Analysis and Director of the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

Mavris, who led the proposal effort for Georgia Tech with Hernando Jimenez, will act as co-director for PEGASAS at Georgia Tech and as one of the center’s coordinators for research. “The team of Georgia Tech aerospace engineering researchers for PEGASAS brings forth abundant expertise and state-of-the-art capabilities across the center’s areas of research," Mavris said.

The team is comprised of aerospace engineering professors Lakshmi Sankar, Massimo Ruzzene, Eric Johnson, Vitali Volovoi, Julian Rimoli and Karen Feigh as well as research engineers Hernando Jimenez, Jimmy Tai, Michelle Kirby, Holger Pfaender and several other ASDL research faculty.

“The FAA continues its goal of working to reduce general aviation fatalities by 10 percent over a 10-year period, from 2009 to 2018,” said Acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in a statement released by the FAA. “The Center of Excellence program is a valuable tool in providing the critical data we need to reduce those accidents.”

The FAA’s Center of Excellence program is a cost-sharing research partnership between academia, industry and the federal government. The FAA plans to invest a minimum of $500,000 per year during the first five years of the new 10-year agreement with PEGASAS.