Originally Posted by john_tullamarine
Unless there is a dollar in it for the OEM, I wouldn't necessarily take the view that the OEM will put non-required fat into the aircraft design ...
Sometimes, it's all we can do to keep the muscles attached to the bones, never mind worrying about the fat ....
As for the testing, the target is always 0kts today for test. Ideally not just 0kts xwind, but 0kts head/tail too, because we want stable conditions for repeatability (one argument againtst the old requirement is "what is a 7kt xwind?" - is a pure 7kt at 90 degs equivalent to a 14 kt wind 30 degs off the heading?, and so on). Plus the windier the conditions the more variable - do we take the average along the run, or the instantaneous value at engine cut? ... and so on. Many of these arguments can still be had about crosswind testing, too.