Three of European aerospace’s most senior test practitioners have been confirmed as speakers at the Aerospace Test & Development Show 2026, which takes place on September 29-30 at Hall 7, MEETT, Toulouse, France.
Thierry Raffy, vice president of test and analytics engineering at Airbus, opens the Testing Forum on the first morning with a presentation on the perspectives of future testing.
Raffy directs 600 engineers at the Flight and Integration Tests Center, overseeing system ground and flight testing across all Airbus commercial programs.
His session addresses the pressures now converging on test – competition, speed to market, rising expectations of safety and maturity, increasing product complexity and a high rate of technology insertion – and asks which of them represent opportunities rather than constraints.
Raffy is followed later on day one by his Airbus colleague Jean-Philippe Navarro, expert in advanced modeling and technical leader of the company’s hybrid testing project.
Navarro holds a PhD in applied mathematics and has spent 25 years defining and validating sizing methods for airframe structures at Dassault Aviation and Airbus, working across the Falcon 7X, A380, A400M and A350 programs and specifying physical tests at every scale from coupons to full airframes.
Navarro’s presentation covers how Airbus intends to strengthen the relationship between physical testing and numerical models, integrating data analytics, artificial intelligence and probabilistic methods into the development of future aircraft.
On day two, Benoît de Poulpiquet, sales and marketing director at DGA Aerospace Systems, will present on the French Ministry of Armed Forces’ Engineering and Expertise Directorate (EED).
The DGA EED provides expertise and carries out testing for French military programs across their entire service life, and also makes its facilities available to other public organizations and industry. De Poulpiquet has led the Balma test center’s commercial function since January 2026.
His session details the testing and expertise capabilities available at the directorate’s Toulouse site – a short distance from the show itself.
Now in its established position as the world’s leading and largest event dedicated to aircraft, drone, helicopter, space and defense testing and development, the event is organized by the publishers of Aerospace Testing International.
The 2026 edition is the most comprehensive to date, with more than 150 exhibitors expected and over 70 speakers confirmed. Event partners Airbus and Aerospace Valley are joined by supporters including NI, HBK, AVL and Farnell.
Three free-to-attend forum stages run across the two days – the Testing Forum, the new Defence Testing Forum and the Future Propulsion Forum. Topics under discussion span flight testing, novel propulsion technology and fuels, autonomy, structural testing, non-destructive testing (NDT), electrification and the testing and certification of new vehicle types.
Raffy, Navarro and de Poulpiquet join a speaker list that already includes Adrian Neve of QinetiQ, Jon Eklof of GKN Aerospace, Helen Leadbetter of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Thomas Grohs of Airbus Defence and Space and Carlos Santos of GE Aerospace.
Registration for the Aerospace Test & Development Show 2026 is now open and free for industry professionals. To start planning your visit and for more information on the speakers, exhibitors and forum agendas, visit the Aerospace Test & Development Show website.
