FAARFIELD (FAA)

Free Design the Building

Standard airport pavement thickness design software developed and distributed free by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) -- implements the FAA AC 150/5320-6G pavement design methodology using layered elastic analysis and the ACR/PCR pavement-strength reporting method; the mandatory tool for any U.S. airport pavement engineer working on FAA-funded airport projects, with companion backcalculation (BAKFAA) and runway-exit-design (REDIM) software.

Agent-hostile
3.0 /5 composite score
Solid -- the FAA-mandated, free standard for airport pavement design with layered elastic analysis and ACR/PCR strength reporting; zero cost, zero lock-in, and accompanied by free companion tools (BAKFAA for backcalculation, REDIM for runway exit design), but it is a desktop-only tool with no API/CLI (RF2) and the airport-specific scope limits use to pavement engineers on FAA-funded projects.
Solid

Rubric Scorecard

How we grade →

Criterion Score Evidence
Value for the price 5/5 Free, free tier
Agent Friendliness 1/5 API: none
Ease of adoption 3/5 --
Portability & lock-in 5/5 --
Interoperability 1/5 --
Visit FAARFIELD (FAA) →

How we verified this: we checked FAARFIELD (FAA) against its live site and an independent source — faa.gov. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-06.

Evidence

Pricing detail

Free tier scopeusable

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