Testbed aircraft
A testbed aircraft is an aeroplane, helicopter or other kind of aircraft intended for flight research or testing the aircraft concepts or on-board equipment. These could be specially designed or modified from serial production aircraft.Use of testbed aircraft
For example, in development of new aircraft engines, these are fitted to a testbed aircraft for flight testing, before certification. For this adaptation it is required, among other changes, that new instrumentation wiring and equipment, fuel system and piping, as well as structural modifications of wing. AlliedSignal, Honeywell Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney all used Boeing jetliners as flying testbed aircraft. A large number of aircraft testbeds have been produced and tested since 1941 in the USSR and Russia by the Gromov Flight Research Institute.
