Journal

1981 · 83664 — Lancaster CA: Society of Flight Test Engineers 1981. Presumed First Edition First printing of this issue. Wraps. Good. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11 inches. 48 plus covers. Footnotes. Formulae Illustrations. References. Cover has some wear and curving. Table of Contents contains: Fuel conservation DC-9 Series 20/30/40 Extracted from the DC Flight Approach July 1979 issue published by Douglas Aircraft Company and Procedures and Analysis Techniques for Determining Static Air Minimum control Speeds submitted by Edward N. Bradfield Flight Test Center Edwards AFB. At the time of publication Bradfield was Chief of the Strategic Projects Branch. This article was extracted from an Office Memorandum authored by Mr. Bradfield. The Society of Flight Test Engineers is a fraternity of engineers whose principal professional interest is the flight testing of aerospace vehicles. The Editor Edward N. Bradfield was employed for 35 years as a flight test engineer by the Air Force Flight Test Center Edwards Air Force Base California and later by the Northrop Grumman Corporation. His work included performance/flying qualities testing and systems evaluations on a variety of Air Force Navy and civilian aircraft including the B-l and B-2 bombers B-52G Cruise Missile Carrier F5F KC-135R Tanker C-5A Wing Modification C-130 YC-14 STOL Transport Boeing 737 French Mirage G P-1127 OV-1 A-4 and numerous classified aircraft programs some of which are on display in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops and gathers data during flight of an aircraft or atmospheric testing of launch vehicles and reusable spacecraft and then analyzes the data to evaluate the integrity and aerodynamic flight characteristics of the vehicle in order to validate the design including safety aspects. The flight test phase accomplishes two major tasks: 1 finding and fixing any design problems and then 2 verifying and documenting the vehicle capabilities for government certification or customer acceptance. The flight test phase can range from the test of a single new system for an existing vehicle to the complete development and certification of a new aircraft launch vehicle or reusable spacecraft. Therefore the duration of a particular flight test program can vary from a few weeks to many years. Military programs differ from commercial in that the government contracts with the aircraft manufacturer to design and build an aircraft to meet specific mission capabilities. These performance requirements are documented to the manufacturer in the aircraft specification and the details of the flight test program among many other program requirements are spelled out in the statement of work. In this case the government is the customer and has a direct stake in the aircraft's ability to perform the mission. Since the government is funding the program it is more involved in the aircraft design and testing from early-on. Often military test pilots and engineers are integrated as part of the manufacturer's flight test team even before first flight. The final phase of the military aircraft flight test is the Operational Test OT. OT is conducted by a government-only test team with the dictate to certify that the aircraft is suitable and effective to carry out the intended mission. Flight testing of military aircraft is often conducted at military flight test facilities. The US Navy tests aircraft at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and the US Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base. The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School are the programs designed to teach military test personnel. The make-up of the Flight Test Team will vary with the organization and complexity of the flight test program however there are some key players who are generally part of all flight test organizations. The leader of a flight test team is usually a flight test engineer FTE or possibly an experimental test pilot. Other FTEs or pilots could also be involved. Other team members would be the Flight Test Instrumentation Engineer Instrumentation System Technicians the aircraft maintenance department mechanics electrical techs avionics technicians etc. Quality/Product Assurance Inspectors the ground-based computing/data center personnel plus logistics and administrative support. Engineers from various other disciplines would support the testing of their particular systems and analyze the data acquired for their specialty area. Since many aircraft development programs are sponsored by government military services military or government-employed civilian pilots and engineers are often integrated into the flight test team. The government representatives provide program oversight and review and approve data. Government test pilots may also participate in the actual test flights possibly even on the first/maiden flight. Society of Flight Test Engineers paperback