Browsing: Opinion

Keeping standards: Twin engine certification

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

Peer pressure

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?

Ivory tower or shop floor?

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?

Is more or less best?

Aerospace testing activities are often accused of being ‘process heavy’ – too much time is spent on activities that do not directly produce results. Is this accusation fair?

Is speed of the essence?

Many aerospace test programs can feel like they are overwhelmingly governed by the golden rule ‘time is money’ – but is this the right approach?

To be there or not to be there?

Is there really any substitute for physical attendance at trials? Aerospace engineers Garnet Ridgway and Sophie Robinson, share their opinions, but will they agree?

Zero personality

Like them or loathe them, unmanned aerial vehicles are here to stay. But are they as challenging to test as their manned counterparts? Aerospace engineers Garnet Ridgway and Sophie Robinson investigate

The good old days: true or false?

Is it more difficult to be a test pilot now than it was in days gone by? Aerospace engineers Garnet Ridgway and Sophie Robinson, who met at the Flight Science and Technology group at the University of Liverpool, have a difference of opinion.

To upgrade or not to upgrade?

Two ex-colleagues from the Flight Science and Technology group at the University of Liverpool lock horns over the testing issue of ‘clean-sheet design versus incremental upgrades’ – and the implications of this on testing.

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