Summary of the 10th SFTE EC Annual Symposium

The 10th annual symposium of SFTE European Chapter was carried out in Linköping, Sweden, between 14th and 17th June 1998 under the motto “Quality of Flight Test”. About 20 papers of high technical standard were presented to a competent international audience. More than 180 delegates from 10 countries made this symposium a great success. A vendor’s exhibition was included with 20 vendors presenting test ranges, courses for education and training and news in flight test equipment.
The symposium was carried out under main sponsorship by Saab and Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV).

The mayor of Linköping City, Mrs. Eva Joelsson, welcomed the delegates at a reception at the Linköping Town Hall and informed on the historical and cultural importance of aerospace industry for Linköping and Sweden. Three days of presentations of papers were performed, which also included visits to the Flight Test Centre of Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and to Saab AB. The high quality of papers presented made it a bit hard for the jury to decide on which paper to select for the best paper award. The award was presented to Mr. Sean Pender of Naval Air Warefare Centre Patuxent River, MD USA, for the paper “Advanced Digital Imaging System”.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, the “fathers” of the European Chapter were invited to attend. Happily almost all members of original European Chapter Board could attend this symposium. The members of the 1st board Vim Dijkshoorn (President), Gösta Niss (vice President), Erwin Reil (Treasurer) and Jeff Posner (Adviser) could all be honoured at the banquet. Ken Chilvers (Secretary) could regrettably not attend.

The symposium had a number of social activities including a visit to the Air Force Museum, spouses programmes and a banquet which was carried out as a Swedish mid summer nights feast including singing, dancing, eating and drinking at the medieval castle of Ekenäs. The hosts were happy to see that a number of the guests were dressed in their national dresses, which gave some extra colour to be banquet. The only thing that did not co-operate during this symposium was the weather!