The «Flight Testing» Graduate Course At Politecnico Di Milano

Lorenzo Trainelli, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Alberto Rolando, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

Abstract

This paper describes the current status of the “Flight Testing” graduate course held at the Politecnico di Milano as an elective subject in its Aeronautical Engineering MSc curriculum. The course, delivered each year, has reached its 10th anniversary in 2015. Nearly 120 students passed the course to date, most of them upon submission and presentation of a flight test report concerning a real flight test mission carried out by the student in person. In fact, the unique characteristic of this course is the provision of a complete experience in which each student is requested to design, perform and report on a real flight test of a manned aircraft, acting as a Flight Test Engineer under all respects. The conditions of the flight test experience and two flight test campaigns are described, reporting on the latest updates in the FTI system, which now features a fully functional telemetry capability.