Flight Experiments Facility
The Flight Experiments facility is Europe's largest operator of research aircraft and operates the research fleet for all DLR research programmes as well as on behalf of external research institutes or industrial partners. The Flight Experiments facility currently has 13 research aircraft and helicopters at its disposal for carrying out scientific campaigns and flight experiments.
The Flight Experiments Facility
- offers scientific experimenters optimal conditions for research
- with the aircraft as a research platform and
- on the aircraft as a flight test vehicle, - advises and supports the researchers in the planning and execution of their experiments,
- realises complex modifications and instrumentation on the aircraft,
- develops its own sensor technology for high-precision air and flight data measurement,
- supplies flight test data for scientific evaluation,
- carries out the flight tests and ensures professional and safe flight test operations, taking into account all legal, manufacturer and safety-related requirements.
The Flight Experiments facility is an independent competence centre and thus an integral part of DLR's research and infrastructure landscape thanks to its ability to procure and maintain test vehicles, modify them to meet user requirements, plan flight experiments under flight test conditions and carry them out worldwide.
The following division of labour has crystallised between the Braunschweig and Oberpfaffenhofen sites due to their proximity to the respective research institutes:
The facility has highly specialised and highly motivated personnel for mission-specific planning and efficient execution of flight experiments. These include test pilots, flight test engineers, development engineers, maintenance specialists and campaign planners. The expertise of these specialists is always kept up to date through targeted further education and training. In addition to the modern flight test vehicles with their adaptations to the needs of the researchers, the highly qualified personnel are the most important success factor for the flight experiments facility
In recent years, several new, scientifically usable infrastructures have been created as part of major investments, which have significantly expanded the technical capabilities of the flight experiments facility. These include, for example, the Falcon 2000 "ISTAR", which entered service in 2020, and the Dornier D328-100 "UpLift", which was procured in 2023. There are also various hangars, user laboratories, storage facilities, climate chambers, workshops and offices.