Sorry to reply Zoom-56 late because of the vocation. According to "VIRTUAL FLIGHT TEST AS ADVANCED STEP IN AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT" written by Edmund Baltes and Wilfried Spitz (EADS Deutschland GmbH), VFT was defined as ＾the performance of selected flight test tasks according to operational aspects on representative ground test facilities such as flight simulator, system integration rigs, test benches and flight test ground station￣. I think it just likes the intergration of what you listed. The groud facilities and test task are used to reduce the testing effort on developing aircraft. To achieve the aim, the groud facilities should be build to represent the real aircraft and flight enviroment as closely as possible. I can't find any regulations of criterions for this. I have no idea that which level of the groud facility is fine for the certification and what tests i do in the ground facility should be acceptable by the FAA or EASA.
Last edited by Jeremy85; 4th Jan 2013 at 06:56.