Toulouse 1997

The 9th European Chapter Symposium was held in Toulouse, France 9th – 11th June 1997. Approximately 60 delegates attended the sessions were about 20 papers were presented. The sessions covered areas as Test organisation and Methods, Flight Test centres and Programmes, Flight-Test tools, Flight Test Methods and techniques, Measurement techniques and data acquisition.

Winner of the “best paper of this symposium award”, was “The JAS39 Gripen high angle of attack and carefree manoeuvring tests” presented by Klas Andersson and Magnus Tormalm from Saab AB. The competition was close with several high quality papers presented.

A specific part of the presentations was reporting on the European Flight Test Engineer Qualification Programme (FTEQP), the inter-European programme, which aims at defining test organisations.

The social activity was highlighted by a dinner at Chateau du Croisillat east of Toulouse. The flamenco style musical and dance performance gave a true south European atmosphere to the event.

The symposium was concluded with visits to Aerospatiale Airbus and ATR production lines and to CNES –Interspace satellite test and management sites in Toulouse.

Guy Destarac from Aerospatiale and Barbara Wood from DERA, also vice President of the European Chapter, made a great effort to make this symposium a successful one.

The symposium was running in parallel with the European Test and Telemetry Conference, which gave an opportunity for members of both organisations to make acquaintance.