EDUCATIONAL FLIGHT TESTING ACTIVITIES WITH LEONARDO HELICOPTERS
Once againt this year, the Flight Testing graduate course, M.Sc. Aeronautical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, renewed the educational activities with Leonardo Helicopters with eight flight missions on board instrumented helicopter prototypes of the AW139 and AW169 models.
The flights were performed on May 14-15, after an introductory seminar and two visits to the Cascina Costa plant for preparation.
This allowed the students to prepare the preliminary documentation for the test flights, involving the verification of contollability and static stability characteristics.
In each mission, a student acted as the Flight Test Engineer (FTE) leading the activity in the cockpit alongside a company test pilot and under the watchful eye of a senior company FTE.
This impressive resources have been used to allow the students experience first-hand the flight testing process, perfectly complementing the course lectures.
After the mission, the students are required to analyze the data gathered in flight and produce a complete Flight Test Report as a mandatory requirement for final evaluation.
The Flight Testing course, an elective in the second semester of the last year of the M.Sc. studies in Aeronautical Engineering offers enrolled students a range of practical flight test activities.
These include the usage of the "Flying classroom" of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (an instrumented fixed-wing ultralight Aircraft Tecnam P92E); the collaboration with Pipistrel Vertical Solutions with their Velis Electro and Explorer models; the collaboration with Leonardo Helicopters; and even the activity offered by the Italian Navy on its NH90 full motion flight simulator at Naval Air Station Luni.
Through this wide array of unique educational activities the students can apply their hard-earned capabilities to certified civil and military applications, including high-tech and even radically innovative products, such as fully electric aircraft.
We are grateful to Leonardo Helicopters for this amazing opportunity to enhance the preparation of PoliMI students on world-class helicopter products and with the active participation of experts such as Test Pilots Domenico Grande and Nicola D’Amico, and Lead Flight Test Engineers Andrea Castelli, Antonio De La Mata Chico, Tommaso Dindo, Walter Moiola e Bram Renier.
As in all past editions, participants learned a lot. An unforgettable experience for everybody involved!