Reply to post: Re: First Flight Challenges

Airbus flies new plane for the first time

Vic

Re: First Flight Challenges

In the old days the test pilots would strap themselves in, light the fires and take the aircraft up for a quick circuit

The short-lived ones did. "Kick the tyres and light the fires" was one motto often used, and it is explicitly called out by Winkle Brown as a poor attitude. He attributed most of his success as a TP to *not* subscribing to that attitude...

One wonders what the remainder of the flight test campaign is really for these days.

There are three main tasks, AIUI:

  • Testing new designs to ensure they are fit for real operation
  • Testing rebuilt aircraft to ensure they have been put back together properly
  • Flying accident profiles to determine what happened

I have friends who do or have done all of these :-)

Vic.

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