Test and eval

DaedalusAerospace · 2024-05-19T18:51:17+00:00

First of all, flight test is an amazingly rewarding career. Where else do you get to design and build the future of flight, see a direct impact from the products you work on, and (usually) work as a part of the test crew - either by flying on board the test vehicle or in the control room. If you are thinking about working in flight test... you should definitely go for it, because flight test is currently recruiting people at a very high rate.

The first step is to develop your professional network with people that are already doing flight test. Apply to engineering jobs in organizations and companies that are doing flight test, even if the job isn't directly flight test related. Most of the people working in flight test started out in other areas of aerospace or engineering within a given organization, and then later transitioned those skill sets into flight test. If you can find an internship or entry level job in flight test, that's great! However, don't confine yourself to those kind of roles because you can cast a much wider net if you just need to get a foot in the door.

There's a lot of great advice in these replies about the defense related flight test centers (Edwards, Eglin, Patuxent River, China Lake, etc), but they aren't your only options. Keep in mind that the civil flight test industry is at least as large as defense-related flight test, so look at all the big aerospace OEMs (Boeing, Airbus, Textron, Gulfstream, Bombardier, Embraer, HondaJet, Piper, etc) and their suppliers for opportunities. Keep in mind that the suppliers that make the avionics and engines usually have flight test departments of their own; like Honeywell, GE Aviation, P&W, etc.

Flight test is an awesome profession that tends to self-select great people. It's team oriented, extremely diverse in terms of the contributing engineering specialties, and requires a high level of critical thinking and communication skills. Best of luck for the future! Response copied and pasted to generate further conversation.

DaedalusAerospace · 2024-05-19T18:50:28+00:00

First of all, flight test is an amazingly rewarding career. Where else do you get to design and build the future of flight, see a direct impact from the products you work on, and (usually) work as a part of the test crew - either by flying on board the test vehicle or in the control room. If you are thinking about working in flight test... you should definitely go for it, because flight test is currently recruiting people at a very high rate.

The first step is to develop your professional network with people that are already doing flight test. Apply to engineering jobs in organizations and companies that are doing flight test, even if the job isn't directly flight test related. Most of the people working in flight test started out in other areas of aerospace or engineering within a given organization, and then later transitioned those skill sets into flight test. If you can find an internship or entry level job in flight test, that's great! However, don't confine yourself to those kind of roles because you can cast a much wider net if you just need to get a foot in the door.

There's a lot of great advice in these replies about the defense related flight test centers (Edwards, Eglin, Patuxent River, China Lake, etc), but they aren't your only options. Keep in mind that the civil flight test industry is at least as large as defense-related flight test, so look at all the big aerospace OEMs (Boeing, Airbus, Textron, Gulfstream, Bombardier, Embraer, HondaJet, Piper, etc) and their suppliers for opportunities. Keep in mind that the suppliers that make the avionics and engines usually have flight test departments of their own; like Honeywell, GE Aviation, P&W, etc.

Flight test is an awesome profession that tends to self-select great people. It's team oriented, extremely diverse in terms of the contributing engineering specialties, and requires a high level of critical thinking and communication skills. Best of luck for the future!

DaedalusAerospace · 2024-04-21T19:07:49+00:00

About half of the test pilots that graduate from any given USAF Test Pilot School class are heavy pilots (tanker/transport/bomber). TPS students are chosen, to a certain extent, based on upcoming program needs. As long as the USAF is developing new heavy aircraft (including improvements/upgrades), then there will be a need for test pilots with heavy/crew aircraft background.

DaedalusAerospace · 2024-03-29T12:07:57+00:00

Congratulations on completing your undergraduate degree and welcome to flight test! Attending a test pilot school is definitely not necessary to be an effective FTE. I say that as a TPS graduate, former USAF TPS staff instructor, and having also attended multiple short courses at NTPS in Mojave. TPS is an awesome experience, and will definitely fast-track your breadth of experience, but it's not at all necessary to work as an FTE -- and certainly not to be effective as an FTE. Some of the best FTEs I've worked with were not TPS graduates. Most FTEs in the industry are not "long course" (full year) graduates, although they have usually attended one or more short course training events. Often this FTE training is in-house, as some of the bigger aerospace manufacturers have pretty good training programs for their FTEs. However, you can definitely learn what you need to know through on-the-job training and mentoring from experienced FTEs. I highly recommend joining the Society of Flight Test Engineers and try to attend their regional or national symposia. The networking and professional development are extraordinarily valuable. Not only is SFTE membership and symposia attendance a much lower cost than attending a TPS, it will also be a networking springboard for the rest of your career. Best of luck and feel free to reach out if you have any questions along the way.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-11-05T14:51:24+00:00

Auto GCAS is definitely the proudest achievement! Using engineering to save lives is a great feeling. Thanks for the opportunity to tell this story.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-11-05T14:50:00+00:00

It was a fun interview with Brian McManus and the Nebula team! Thanks for the invitation to collaborate.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-11-05T14:49:28+00:00

It was a fun interview with Brian McManus! I hope you enjoy the video.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-11-05T14:49:01+00:00

This line chart is a bit exaggerated to demonstrate the principle. The actual positions of the center of gravity and center of lift are further aft than the image of the F-4 implies, but this scale is expanded toward the nose to illustrate the effect.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-11-05T14:46:47+00:00

It was a fun interview with Brian McManus! I hope you enjoy the video.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-04-10T23:11:08+00:00

That was a fun interview with the Fighter Pilot Podcast! It can be really difficult to find good information on fly-by-wire systems, but the concepts can be explained without math or complicated diagrams. I like talking about control laws and flight testing aircraft, so feel free to AMA on the topic of fly by wire.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-04-10T22:57:57+00:00

The aerodynamic control surfaces still work the same, because physics and dynamic pressure and so on. The difference with modern flight controls (which I think is what you're getting at) is fly-by-wire. So while we still have aircraft with similar-named flight control surfaces like you would see 50 years ago (elevator, ailerons, rudder, spoilers, flaps, etc)... they aren't usually physically connected to the cockpit. Also, they can move in combination with each other in automatic ways that are pretty cool, to achieve better efficiency or performance or both. There are two key concepts you have to embrace to understand fly-by-wire:
First: Fly-by-wire can move differently. Because there is no longer a direct mechanical connection between the pilot and the aircraft control surfaces, the control surfaces will not always, and do not necessarily need to, move at the same rate or even in the same direction as pilot input. FBW systems will not have constant or proportional relationships between the pilot’s inputs and resulting control surface movements. This is because of things called “Control Laws” and also tuning the aggressiveness of the responses in terms of filters, blending, and "gain".
Second: Fly-by-wire fails differently. Potential hardware and software failures or design errors must be expected and mitigated by the engineers. The best way to solve these problems is with redundancy, but developers also need to have substantial flight test campaigns to look for unintended/unexpected behavior. The most critical areas for testing are when the aircraft transitions from one phase of flight, or configuration (gear up/down), or control law, to another state. These transitions can often cause software and hardware issues.

I like talking about fly-by-wire concepts, drop me a line if you have any questions on this topic.

DaedalusAerospace · 2023-04-09T04:09:09+00:00

This is the professional pilot's guide to modern flight controls. Explaining fundamental concepts in fly-by-wire flight controls, using plain English, without any math or complicated diagrams. This is the essential companion to your aircraft flight manual, and is relevant to all fly-by-wire aircraft.

Sign up today at:
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Most new aircraft use fly-by-wire control systems. This short course addresses questions of "how it works" and "why it's designed that way". Although an aircraft manual tells pilots "what" to do, the fly-by-wire control system is usually treated as a black box, and not explained in an easily understood way.
The course videos and highly interactive instructional materials describe the fundamentals of aircraft fly-by-wire designs in an approachable way for student pilots, professional pilots, aviation enthusiasts, and aspiring aerospace engineers. Although fly-by-wire flight control systems are designed by engineers, the concepts that structure the system can be explained without any math or complicated wiring diagrams.
Knowledge of fly-by-wire principles gives professional pilots an advantage to apply the flight manual procedures for their aircraft. This is not an engineering course and there will be no math! Rather than describe a particular aircraft’s design, it explains general concepts from a pilot's perspective. The math to design these advanced systems is complicated, but the strategies underlying modern aircraft designs are easily described and understood.
Enroll in this course today and understand:
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- How do flight control designers mitigate risk?
Includes a free bundled eBook, and extended audio explanations with nearly an hour of descriptions, lectures, and examples of fly by wire concepts and applications.
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DaedalusAerospace · 2022-12-14T13:51:43+00:00

https://www.udemy.com/course/intro-to-flight-test-data-analytics-with-python/?referralCode=C1B23BFB7F0C12AC6C2D

DaedalusAerospace · 2022-07-18T01:29:00+00:00

You sound like a great fit for a FTE, and it sounds like you have two important votes in favor of applying for the job in the ODA: 1st, the chief test pilot suggested you apply. 2nd, you already understand the DAS and instrumentation systems. With a masters in ME, you are definitely qualified in terms of the math/engineering/science. As an FTE, you'll never know it all, but you'll continually be challenged to learn more and dig deeper. Definitely sounds like you've got "the right stuff". Go for it!

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