Fewer Aircraft to Flight Test: Contemporary challenges for flight test of military aircraft

Rudolf Bischoff, Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Manching, Germany

Abstract

To keep these aircraft relevant they are constantly upgraded. Whereas their basic capability is still sufficient for today's requirements, in detail they need constant care: new functionalities and new weapons have to be integrated, obsolete equipment must be replaced and basic aircraft systems must be made fit accordingly.

Due to the dynamic nature of today's political environment and the consequences for military operations such requests may come up on short notice in the form of an urgent operational requirement.

Flight test organizations have to adapt to this environment. On the one side the long operational life means that flight testers with the experience of a complete development flight test program are rather rare. Most engineers spend most of their career with update projects, the majority of them dealing with avionics. On the other side a flight test institution has to be ready on short notice to perform a flight test program for an answer to an urgent operational requirement.

For industry flight test additional challenges lie in the fact that a lot of aircraft development programs are multinational, further dividing flight test responsibilities. But to complete test programs for national requirements a full system capability is required by national customers. However some systems are changed and therefore tested only infrequently. Specialists for such testing must be trained and kept current at the same time. How can we organize and fund this process?