Search Results For \"human factors\" | 18 Results

This new column will feature a brief description, photo/video, and or reference that talks about a Flight Test Technique that students at USAF Test Pilot School are currently learning. It’s an alphabetical list of FTTs together with a chronological account of what future test pilots and flight test engineers are doing right now. It will complement the previous Friday’s FTT tweets as well.

What are some examples of systems FTTs?

1. The powerplant, or engine, is a system that interacts with many other systems on the aircraft. Here are examples of propulsion FTTs.

2. The F-35 has an electro optical targeting system (EOTS), as seen in this video.

3. The F-14D conducted flight test to evaluate its infrared search and track pod, as this video describes.

4. Here is the demonstration of the advanced target pod on the F-16 and F-15.

As you can see, sensors like these and radars are an area of intense focus in systems FTTs.

What questions do systems FTTs answer?

1. Does the sensor have the correct resolution?

2. Can it distinguish targets from x range and y altitude?

3. Does system function throughout the aircraft envelope (altitude, G, airspeed, temperature, etc.)?

4. Do the controls and human-machine interface meet their intended function appropriately without causing confusion or errors? These four videos illustrate human factors questions.

More information about Systems FTTs

For more information about systems FTTs, you can read this guide to radar systems flight test and data analysis: AGARD FTT Series – Vol 4, Anttenae Patterns and Radar Reflection. You can also find out what Test Pilot Schools teach about systems FTTs, and finally, this thought experiment with a simple ipod may illustrate some aspects of systems FTTs as well.

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This post summarizes references and #FTT tweets from the previous Friday. What is #FTT Friday?

#FTT Friday
Each Friday, @FlightTestFact will deliver examples, definitions, and explanations of flight test techniques for the entire day. You can view these tweets by searching for #FTT and #flighttest as depicted below. You can also click on the picture below to be taken to the twitter search results. What FTT would you like to know more about?

For more information, you can read the post What is an FTT? or check out the alphabetical index or the FTT blog category for several examples, test cards, and videos of FTTs.

Halloween Airplanes — Airplanes by Design

Hee are three kinds of halloween themed airplanes: 1) Orange airplanes, 2) Frankenstein airplanes, and 3) freakish experimental aircraft.

Orange Airplanes
Flight test airplanes frequently have lots of orange paint on them, but @GenChuckYeager had an entire orange airplane, the Bell X-1, as you can see here.
Click here to see more X-1 photos on flickr.

Whenever a flight test specific modification is made to an airplane, it is done with orange–orange wire, orange boxes, and orange metal structure. The C-17 T-1 aircraft had many such modifications. You can see here that is contains an orange highlighted Ares drop test vehicle, and if you look carefully towards the front of the cargo compartment (background of the photo), you can see some of T-1′s unique modifications.

Frankenstein Airplanes
Pieced together from the parts of many other airplanes, these flying test beds are airborne flight test laboratories, like this F-35 Flying Test Bed, the CATB “catbird”.

For more airplanes with frankenstein-like characteristics, check out these.
The UK’s flying test bed (including video)
3 Human Factors flying test beds
3 Avionics and Systems flying test beds
More flying test bed photos and videos.

Freakish Experimental Aircraft
X-planes are true flight test wonders, experimental aircraft. The X-4 Bantam pictured here is probably one you are less familiar with.

The lifting bodies pictured here have a kind of ghoulish name.

But there are so many more, like AD-1 photos and X-plane photos.

In Airplane C-17, CATB, experimental airplanes, HL-10, JDTV, lifting body, M2-F3, X-1, X-24A

What kind of airplanes will I fly at USAF Test Pilot School?

While at the USAF Test Pilot School, you will likely fly over thirty different kinds of airplanes, including the 3 primary aircraft as well as qual eval aircraft.

Near the end of the course, there is a capstone project, a lengthy and thorough qualitative evaluation of an aircraft that the flight test student has never flown. For me it was the A-10A Thunderbolt II.

For a week, you will immerse yourself in ground training, emergency procedures simulators, and mission planning. On the last day of the week, you will hop into the single seat A-10, and with an instructor on your wing, you will take off and head for the bombing range. While I was at TPS, I shot the gun, dropped bombs, and flew a low level while evaluating many of the design characteristics and human factors of the A-10. I was not able to record that experience, but recently @flightglobal shared this A-10 video.

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Don’t just imagine your dreams–explore them, because we need you. The aerospace industry needs innovators. The flight test community is looking for the next Neil Armstrong, and that’s what this column is about, helping you take that next small step.

Thanks for reading Launch Your Flight Test Career #16. Send a message to @FlightTestFact on Twitter to ask questions about launching your flight test career.

Search Results For ""human factors""

Systems FTTs – ABCs of Flight Test #6

Halloween Airplanes — Airplanes by Design

What kind of airplanes will I fly at USAF Test Pilot School?