Question: What experiments do you do to see if the plane will fly in the conditions you want it to?

Edward Taylor answered on 11 Mar 2013:

There are loads of different experiments for the different conditions that the plane/helicopter might fly through, but I’ll go through the main ones!

Just in case the temperature gets really hot or cold, I have to put the equipment in temperature chambers which are basically big ovens or freezers. I keep an eye on it and test it after to see if its still working.

On helicopters, the equipment gets shaken loads or vibrated, so I have to get someone to put the equipment on big shakers to shake them really violently and make sure they dont fall apart!

Electromagnetism can be a big problem for electronics. Electro magnetic signals can be anything in the electro magnetic spectrum which you may have come across in physics. Some examples are phone signals (thats why you have to turn your phone off one the plane!), radio waves and lightning! We put the equipment in a chamber and use a big antenna to fire different types of electromagnetic waves at the equipment to see if it will cause it any problems.

There are many other tests, I cant tell you all of them though because a lot of the stuff I work on is top secret! The military usually have much harsher requirements because they usually use their equipment in far harsher places! (like deserts and humid jungles).