32nd SFTE EC virtual symposium

The continuous COVID-19 situation made the BoD decide to go virtual for the second time since the EC was established in 1987. This webinar event was held on September 15 and 16 including a key note address delivered by Mr. Rudolf Bischoff FTE and Senior Expert for Airborne Systems Integration, Test & Verification at Airbus D&S Germany. His topic of choice was the theme of the presentation “Driving down the cost of flight testing without reducing safety margins”.

The first day the JM Award ceremony was held for the second time. The award was granted to Mr. Andrew Nixon (1963-2021). Principal FTE of the Flight Test Department at Leonardo Helicopters (Yeovil). A valued representative of the FTE community, internationally respected for his contribution to the field and mentor for many starting FTE within Leonardo. Unfortunately the family was not in a position to attend the symposium. The award (a copy of the painting “Empty desk” by the Spanish artist Mrs. Aida Mauri Crusat) and motivation will be sent to his family.

The second day we started with a new element of the symposium programme, the so called Campfire Sessions. Intended to provide a podium for the most respected members of SFTE. The very first Campfire Sessions was provided by Mr. David Gibbings (fellow and recipient of the Kelly Johnson Award). Mr. Gibbings provided a truly motivational speech for all on the past and future position and role of the FTE.

Nine presenters delivered high quality presentations over the two days, concluded with a Best Paper Award. By decision of the judges the BPA was granted to Thomas Dumoulin (NLR, The Netherlands) for his paper “An alternative approach for determining the Position Error Corrections (PEC) in static pressure measurement at altitude”. As a token of appreciation a model of the RNLAF A330 MRTT will go to the winner.

SFTE EC values its co-operation with the Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) to provide peer review and validation for those authors who seek publication in a scientific journal.

At the end of day 2 we concluded with the Annual Business Meeting. During the ABM the new BoD was elected for the period 2021-2023. A ballot e-mail was send to all EC members in July. One change in the BoD: Vice President Panos Vitsas is leaving us upon his return to Canada. Panos, thank you so much for your contribution to the EC. In his place Nunzio (Nick) Caccavo was elected to become the new Vice President. Nick welcome to the EC BoD.

The video recordings are available via the SFTE EC website. We will keep you updated.
Looking forward to next year’s event.