Instrumentation of an Aerial Platform for Flight Testing Education purposes. The Spanish Flight Test MsC Experience

Rafael González Armengod, Head of Instrumentation Laboratory. Flight Test Department. INTA, Madrid, Spain
Jesús Javier Fernández Orío, Head of Military Transport Unit Airworthiness Department, INTA, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

The Spanish aeronautics industrial evolution has not been accompanied by the corresponding progress in Flight Testing education. On 2005, the main Flight Testing Spanish Actors (the Spanish Air Force; INTA, the MoD airworthiness technical authority; DGAC the Civilian airworthiness technical authority and EADS) came together to analyze how to establish a Spanish Flight Testing educational framework. Started formally on 2006, the MsC was designed with three main general objectives:

• To provide an educational stuff, with a multi-disciplinary approach, where theory and praxis should have a similar weight.
• To have a rigorous theoretical formation on classical Flight Testing areas, paying special attention to systems and airworthiness.
• To adjust the praxis, mainly flight hours, to reduce the overall cost of the course.

After different efforts, the first MsC was successfully completed on 2008-09 course. An analysis about NPA 2008-20 (EASA proposal rule) impact on Spanish Flight Testing community is introduced.

An important part of the learning activities is the actual flight tests. These tests are carried out by the students on several platforms.

INTA instrumentation laboratory has the responsibility of providing the FTI for the students’ flight tests. This equipment and installation has unique requirements. They have to reflect enough the state of the art and to do so in an affordable way for the assigned resources. The installation has to take in account that the instrumentation will be managed not by professionals but for students. At the same time, it has to be flexible enough to represent as much different kind of tests as possible. The design, selection and integration of this instrumentation for the Spanish Flight Test Master are detailed in this paper.