From the outside, a career in aerospace testing seems as glamorous and exciting as ever. Is this really the case? Are we in a golden age? And are those that disagree guilty of looking back through rose-tinted spectacles?
Browsing: Opinion
Peter Kelley, a former senior metrologist at the National Weights & Measures Laboratory and training development manager at the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), takes a look at the difference between calibration and testing, at metrological traceability and uncertainty in measurement, and considers the significance of possible measurement errors in final test and calibration results
The development rate of consumer electronics has been meteoric over the past few decades, whereas aircraft undergoing testing are often fundamentally unchanged. Does this huge technological advance make aerospace testing a formality in this day and age?
A spate of recent air accidents has been attributed to human factors. Is this an emerging trend or simply history repeating itself?
With the use of additive manufacturing (AM) on the increase in the aerospace industry, the lack of standards for testing such products is a source of growing concern.
The aerospace testing community has recently experienced a number of catastrophic, loss-of-platform accidents. Naturally, the short-term response is to seek answers in support of safe return-to-flight. What do such incidents mean for the long-term success of the program?
Space has traditionally been the jewel in the crown of the aerospace testing world – the ultimate showcase for a nation’s technological prowess. But has the public lost its appetite for extraterrestrial achievements?
There are two areas of enormous development with civil airliners: commercial change and technological change. It can be argued that the biggest game changer was the breakthrough in certifying twin-engined larger airliners
Successful test flights are good advertising, but incidents in aerospace testing can propel organizations into the headlines worldwide for all the wrong reasons. Should such activities be locked away behind closed doors?
The aerospace testing community is made up of individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds, but does formal education offer an advantage over on-the-job training?