Summary of the 26th SFTE EC Annual symposium

The 26^th symposium of the SFTE European Chapter took place last 6^th to 8^th of October in Seville, Spain. The program contained two days of technical sessions, a technical tour to "El Arenosillo" Test Range, and exceptionally and additional Technical Tour to Airbus Defense&Space facilities in San Pablo. The venue for the technical sessions was the School of Engineering from the University of Seville. Finally a total of 20 presentations were developed from 8 countries: France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The theme for the symposium was "Flight Test, where no one has gone Before".
The attendance was formed by people from 10 different countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The organization was possible thanks to the support from the School of Engineering staff. It has to be specially noted the great help received by a group of 20 students of aeronautical engineering. These young people were part of the EUROAVIA student association, and their support was essential for the development of the sessions and the rest of the activities. A special early registration was offered on Monday 5^th in the afternoon at Hotel NH Plaza de Armas, where most of the attendees were hosted.

On Tuesday 6^th of October the first day started at Engineering School. There was an opening ceremony with the attendance of the delegate of job from the regional government from Andalusia, the mayor of the city of Seville, the director of the University of Seville, the Dean of the school of engineering and the CEO of Airbus Group Spain. Afterwards, Mr. Javier Ruiz de Ojeda, Airbus Group Institutional Relations Defence & Technology Director, acted as Keynote Speaker. Along the rest of the day Three Technical Sessions were performed.

On Tuesday 6^th in the evening, a special night visit to the "Reales Alcazares" palace was arranged. The attendees could enjoy the beauty of this place during the dark in a very special environment. Afterwards a reception took place on the terrace of hotel Seises in Seville downtown, facing the illuminated tower of the Cathedral.

Wednesday 7^th was the second day with 4 technical sessions at the Engineering School.

That evening a delegation of the symposium organization committee, jointly with a university delegation, was received at the city hall of Seville by the deputy mayor of the city. After a nice reception the delegation paid a visit to the city hall building, from XVI century.

Symposium dinner took place at Restaurant Abades, in an awesome environment over the Guadalquivir River, facing of two of the main monuments of the city the Golden Tower and the Giralda. During the dinner, the name of the winner of the prize for the best paper was announced. The prized went for Mr. Christian Schellting and Mr. Michael Anger for their presentation of the paper : “Solar Impulse 2 Winspan of an A340, weight of a mid-size car, power of a scooter- flight test, where no one has gone Before”.

On Thursday 8^th of October, symposium attendees enjoyed a great day visiting INTA facilities at "El Arenosillo" in the South West coast of Spain. This Test Range is one hour driving distance from Seville. All the facilities were visited and two specific demonstrations were arranged for the visitors. First an aerial drone “Mirach” was launched to be monitored from a screen in a special room. All the attendees witnessed the launch and the initial climb. Unfortunately a malfunction occurred just after launching and the flight was aborted from control station. The recovery from the sea was also monitored. Finally the optronic systems tracked the flight of a C-295 on a simulated flare ejection circuit over the test range. All the operation was monitored by the symposium attendees, from a special control room.
After a well provided lunch, we returned to Seville.

As an exceptionally occasion in this symposium, a second technical tour was offered for the Friday 9^th of october. We went to San Pablo Airbus Defense&Space facilities, in Seville airport. We could visit the Final Assembly Line of the A400M, and Medium and Light Transports and the Flight Test Center.

During the visit to the Flight Test Center members of the European chapter board delivered a memorial plaque as a tribute for the victims of the accident of A400M prototype in May. This was received by people from flight test crews.
After we enjoyed the hospitality from Airbus Defence & Space.
This was the final activity of the symposium.

There were exceptionally good level of papers and presenters during the technical sessions. All the authors were asked more than once and the technical conversations continued over the coffee brakes and lunches.
Great networking activity was performed as well. The Technical Tours were highly appreciated and enjoyed by the participants. We were lucky with the weather and people could enjoy outdoors activities also.

Finally the next year symposium was announced. 2016 27th symposium will take place in Nuremberg, Germany 10-12 of May along with the ETC conference.