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In today's world, we can't afford to do a contractor test and a govt
test. We combine the testing as much as possible. Single seaters are almost always flown first by the company test pilot followed by military test pilots. From then on it is pretty transparent who is flying the jet. For multi seat aircraft, the first flight is usually a mix of company and military test aircrew, and remaining flights are a random mixture. Nowadays, the Operational testers are also mixed in early. Also, test pilots will push the aircraft beyond flight manual limits. We need to see how robust those limits are. Nice to know if the aircraft will depart if it goes .00001% past some parameter. Ross "Roscoe" Dillon USAF Flight Tester (B-2, F-16, F-15, F-5, T-37, T-38, C-5, QF-106) On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:11:51 GMT, "Dudley Henriques" wrote: "Ed Rasimus" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 09:31:05 GMT, Scott Ferrin wrote: As testing proceeds, airspeed, bank angles, altitudes, AOA ranges and accelerations are expanded. Pushing the envelope involves moving those lines on the performance charts gradually outward to expand the capabilities of the airframe. Basically a very good explanation of flight test procedure. To be absolutely accurate, one can say that "pushing the envelope" in a flight test context is a carefully programmed step by step process designed to take the airframe/engine combination through the PROJECTED flight envelope parameters and compare actual flight test data against that projection; then adjust the envelope to a final set of limit parameters. This process will either prove or disprove the design projection. I should add that after all this has been done by the contractor's test pilots, it's redone by the military flight test program for the involved aircraft. The F14 for example, went through Grumman's flight test program, then into an extensive flight test program at Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Pax River, where all aspects of the envelope were proven over again by the Navy team. I can attest first hand that the "envelope" was indeed "re-pushed" a bit at Strike! :-) Dudley Henriques International Fighter Pilots Fellowship Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired For personal email, please replace the z's with e's. dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt |
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