Uni Degrees and FT work
 

Hi everybody,

I'm currently 17 and considering uni courses. I've been awarded a RAF 6th form / uni scholarship and would idealy like to eventually (*eventually* :)) love to get through to ETPS, after I'm sure many many years of squadron flying, and especially since my work experience (FJTS, QinetiQ) I have the ambition to get into FJ testing.

I really want to do Aeronautical Engineering / Aerosystems Engineering, or possibly Avionics. Bearing this in mind, and the fact that I want to learn as much as possible in the three or four years available between the end of school and IOT, (although I'm sure this is a question you must me asked a million times), is there / are there any degrees that you would specifically reccommend for someone wishing to eventually enter the wonderful world of Test Flying?

And also, as an aside, can you reccommend any good books to read? I've worked my way through both volumes of Chris Carpenter's "Flightwise"(although the second one, Stability and Control, was a bit ... interesting)" and Vaughn Williams' "Flight Testing Homebuilt Aircraft" (the wonders of amazon.co.uk), but are there any other good books out there I could / should be reading?

- Stuart

Edited to make the italics work

Well I did the Southampton Aero-Eng degree, as did a great many other TPs and FTEs of my acqaintance, and would certainly not try to talk you out of that particular option. But, all the degrees offer an FT element to the course, albeit rather cursory - usually in the Cranfield Jetstream. Bath, Glasgow, Loughborough, Kingston, Hatfield, all offer degree courses that nobody would be disadvantaged by.

The main thing to do is look at the options within the 2nd to 4th years of the various degrees - look for whole aircraft subjects such as flight dynamics, flight control systems, aerospace vehicle design, helicopter dynamics (Southampton call it powered lift). These courses will put you in a far stronger position than the more esoteric CFD, combustion chamber thermodynamics, etc.

As to books, go on the internet and look up AC23-8, the FAA's flight test handbook, also their ultralight and homebuilt flight test manual (sorry, forgotten the reference) and best of all, get yourself a copy of Darrol Stinton's trilogy - very expensive but worth their weight in gold for student and practicing Engineers alike.

G

Cheers Genghis.

What do you think of the Imperial College London course (the one I've been reccommended by my tutor to look at). Had a look round their website and downloaded the syllabus for their MEng but haven't had the chance to look through it yet. I was considering Southampton, actually (a friend of mine is doing Advertising, or somesuch, and he likes the place), as well as Bristol or Bath.

And as for the three books by Darrol Stinton ... well Amazon reckons for those, plus "Flight Without Formulae" would cost £150 odd .... think I might have to wait a little while for that little lot! Might buy them one at a time.

- Stuart

My personal opinion is that Imperial's course is too theoretical for somebody aiming to become a working Engineer and is really intended to create researchers.

Get "anatomy of the aeroplane" first, then Kermode - those will be most useful to you at this stage.

G

Ordered Anatomy of the Aeroplane today ... anyone else with any views about uni courses?

:confused:

Dimensional

Some decent text I found to that subject is titled „Introduction to Test Flight Engineering“. It’s a Jeppensen Maintenance publication, ISBN 0-89100-225-1.

There are many Universities that do offer flight test courses, a google search should come up with a good return.

By now I collected a number of web links if you’re interested in a copy, e-mail me.

Cheers
:D

Firstly, you don't have to be an engineering egg-head to be a test pilot. That's what we have engineers for. First and foremost you need to be a "good" pilot.

So a degree in any scientific/design orientated discipline will set you on the right road.

However, if you missed last week's Times "Good University Guide" here are a couple of links that might be of interest.

The generic URL to take you to the Times Summary is :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/uniguide

A specific link to take you to Aeronautical Engineering is:

http://www.times-archive.co.uk/onlin...tion/aero.html

Bath, Nottingham and Imperial are this year's flavours of the month. It used to be Bristol in my day. Lovely City, good compromise.

I like the sound of your commitment; Good Luck!