The Flight Test Organizations: Improving efficiency and safety during aircraft development

This book provides ideas on how a Flight Test Organization should function to best achieve its objectives, and:
- Avoid accidents
- Avoid mistakes
- Develop the team
- Have the best tools
Despite their similar purposes, there are major differences between Flight Test Organizations, such as culture the number of people involved the number of aircraft under their responsibility the number of annual flight hours the academic and technical training of their teams, and the country they operate in.

While acknowledging these differences, this book seeks to identify and detail the common activities among these organizations. They have not only activities in common, but structure (see Chapter 1) operating doctrines (see Chapter 2) processes (see Chapter 3) the need for training (see Chapter 3) the need to have a Risk Management System (see Chapter 12) and to comply with the Organization’s Risk Management System procedures (see Chapter 10) They are part of an Aeronautical Design Organization (see Chapters 15), have a Maintenance team (see Chapter 9), an Instrumentation team (see Chapter 8), and a Flight Test Operations Manual (see Chapter 4). Finally, they can also work with an Aircraft Production Organization (see Chapter 16).

I believe that understanding these characteristics allows a Flight Test professional to better perform their duties in the organization and, therefore, be more effective.

The information and techniques in this book are based on professional experience and grounded in repetition and analysis. They are not simply ideas, but methods based on real experiences.