Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Wilhelm, Head of Flight Test Operations Toulouse, Airbus
The presentation leads briefly through the A320 family tree to understand how Airbus arrived finally at the A321XLR version of its single aisle aircraft. Different development steps and selected flight test events are presented and explained together with the challenges experienced during this program.
Thomas Wilhelm joined Airbus in February 2014 as Experimental Test Pilot. His professional career began with the German Army in 1985. After several years as transport pilot at the Air Transport Wing 61, he was selected to join the German national test center. He graduated from the Empire Test Pilot School (ETPS) in 2002 and became the German project pilot for the A400M. Between 2003 and 2014 Thomas was a member of the EASA A400M civil certification team and the military Certification and Qualification Organization (CQO), where he was responsible for Flight, Performance and Human Factors. During his flying career, Thomas accumulated more than 6500 hours including around 5000 hours of flight test. He performed the maiden flight of the first German A400M in October 2014. At Airbus, Thomas is involved in the A350 and the A320/321neo programs, but his main task is the A330neo program where he is one of the two project pilots. Thomas performed the first flight of the A330-900 and up to date he is following the activities related to A330-900 and A330-800 development and certification. At present, Thomas is the Head of Flight Test Operations Toulouse and the Local Chief Test Pilot Toulouse.
Weitere Informationen zum Inhalt des Vortrags hier im PDF (Download).
Organization: RAeS Hamburg in cooperation with the DGLR, VDI, ZAL & HAW
