Testbed aircraft

Sapphire turbojet engine fitted to an Avro 691 Lancastrian testbed (outer position), June 1954

A testbed aircraft is an aeroplane, helicopter or other kind of aircraft intended for flight research or testing the aircraft concepts or on-board equipment. These could be specially designed or modified from serial production aircraft.

Use of testbed aircraft

McDonnell Douglas MD-81 testbed with experimental GE36 propfan engine
Yak-40-based testbed aircraft with a hybrid powerplant

For example, in development of new aircraft engines, these are fitted to a testbed aircraft for flight testing, before certification. For this adaptation it is required, among other changes, that new instrumentation wiring and equipment, fuel system and piping, as well as structural modifications of wing.

The Folland Fo.108 (nicknamed the "Folland Frightful") was a dedicated engine testbed aircraft of the 1940s. The aircraft had a mid fuselage cabin for test instrumentation and observers. Twelve were built and provided to British aero-engine companies. A large number of aircraft-testbeds have been produced and tested since 1941 in the USSR and Russia by the Gromov Flight Research Institute.

AlliedSignal, Honeywell Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney and other aerospace companies used Boeing jetliners as flying testbed aircraft.

See also


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