Chapter 1 - Introduction

This AGARDograph is intended, as the title and Foreword indicate, to provide an introduction to flight test engineering. It is aimed at personnel entering the field with little or no prior experience of the subject, and those whose work in other branches of aeronautics requires them to have an appreciation of the issues involved. Hence, it concentrates on the more universally applicable aspects of the subject which will be encountered during the development and certification of any new aircraft design. This Section "sets the scene" by offering some background on, and justification for, flight testing and outlining the differences between "development" and "certification" testing.