Digitalization in flight testing as cost-saving factor

Regine Pattermann, RS Flight Systems GmbH

Abstract

The dominant requirement when setting up a process in flight testing is legitimately the safety of flight and secondly fulfilling the purpose of the test. In this paper the question is discussed if digitalization can help a third concern which is reducing the costs without getting into a conflict with flight safety.

The digital format and understanding of the link between all pieces of information is the key prerequisite for automatization of time intensive work tasks which is the resulting advantage that can lead to reduced costs during flight campaigns.

The paper presents the specific developed strategies of digitalization and automatization when handling with data and information during a flight campaign. The advantages and risks are discussed and the analysis of the benefit along with the lessons learned in different flight campaigns are elaborated.