The Research and Development panel allows you to unlock new stuff for your airport! Administrators must be assigned to projects to get them done and unlock those new things!
To unlock most of the content and services in Airport CEO, you need to do an R & D project on them. This will take a certain amount of time (depends on the project) and administrators. Administrators (or admins, as later used in the paragraph) are staff that work at your airport and are hired via the staff panel. Then, when ready, a project can be started from the R & D panel. This panel can be found under operations. You can click on a project project group (you can unlock multiple), and then select the project you want to research. Then, during work hours, Administrators that are assigned to that project will work on unlocking that feature.
Note that many projects require another project to be researched first. Also note that Admins will need a way to enter your airport, so make sure you have a bus and car stop, as well as a path to the staff room.
Programs can alter how much you pay in operations, boost passenger happiness, and much more. Each group is unlocked by going down the Program and Project group R & D chain (see above). You can add up to 5 admins to each program to get the boost. You can boost no more than 2 programs per group. Here is a list of programs (Important note: Marketing allows other visitors to visit your airport, and shop and eat outside of security):