Flight Ex­per­i­ments fa­cil­i­ty

DLR - The DLR fleet of research aircraft at a glance
DLR's fleet of re­search air­craft
Image 1/12, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

DLR's fleet of research aircraft

The DLR Flight Ex­per­i­ments Fa­cil­i­ty, which is lo­cat­ed in Braun­schweig and Oberp­faf­fen­hofen, is re­spon­si­ble for the de­ploy­ment and util­i­sa­tion of DLR’s fleet of high­ly-mod­i­fied re­search air­craft. These air­craft are them­selves the sub­ject of aero­nau­ti­cal re­search – for ex­am­ple in the fields of aero­dy­nam­ics, aeroe­las­tic­i­ty, flight con­trol and flight guid­ance. They are al­so used as plat­forms for the in­stal­la­tion of sci­en­tif­ic in­stru­ments for at­mo­spher­ic re­search and Earth ob­ser­va­tion.
In-flight Systems and Technology Airborne Research (ISTAR) aircraft
In-flight Sys­tems and Tech­nol­o­gy Air­borne Re­search (IS­TAR) air­craft
Image 2/12, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

In-flight Systems and Technology Airborne Research (ISTAR) aircraft

When ful­ly de­vel­oped, IS­TAR will be able to test the flight char­ac­ter­is­tics of new air­craft de­signs, re­al or vir­tu­al, crewed or un­crewed, un­der re­al op­er­at­ing con­di­tions.
ATRA at low altitude
ATRA at low al­ti­tude over the Magde­burg Cochst­edt Air­port
Image 3/12, Credit: DLR/Marek Kruszewski (CC-BY 3.0).

ATRA at low altitude over the Magdeburg Cochstedt Airport

The DLR ATRA re­search air­craft flies at around 15 me­tres above the air­port grounds with its land­ing gear re­tract­ed.
DLR's DO 228-212 research aircraft
DLR's DO 228-212 re­search air­craft
Image 4/12, Credit: © DLR. All rights reserved

DLR's DO 228-212 research aircraft

The DO 228-212 is pri­mar­i­ly used for re­mote sens­ing, but al­so for ma­rine and at­mo­spher­ic re­search.
View of DLR research aircraft
Re­search air­craft
Image 5/12, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Research aircraft

With a fo­cus on re­search in­to air­craft and util­is­ing these, the fa­cil­i­ty is lo­cat­ed in Braun­schweig and Oberp­faf­fen­hofen. The main us­er in­sti­tutes are lo­cat­ed at these sites, which en­sures con­tin­u­ous ac­cess to the ex­per­i­men­tal fa­cil­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion phas­es for cam­paigns and mis­sions.
In-Flight-Simulator EC 135 FHS, Flying Helicopter Simulator (FHS)
In-Flight-Sim­u­la­tor EC 135 FHS
Image 6/12, Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

In-Flight-Simulator EC 135 FHS

EC 135 (FHS), Fly­ing He­li­copter Sim­u­la­tor, is a unique, ad­vanced air­borne testbed and is de­signed to al­low the in-flight eval­u­a­tion of new con­trol tech­nolo­gies, cock­pit de­signs, and man-ma­chine in­ter­faces in a re­al en­vi­ron­ment and with the pi­lot in the loop. It is based on an EC 135 he­li­copter that is re­fit­ted with fly-by-light tech­nol­o­gy, smart ac­tu­a­tors, high speed pro­ces­sors, state-of-the-art sen­sors, and ad­vanced, pro­grammable dis­play sys­tems.
Flying auditorium 'Cessna 208B Grand Caravan'
Fly­ing au­di­to­ri­um 'Cess­na 208B Grand Car­a­van'
Image 7/12, Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

Flying auditorium 'Cessna 208B Grand Caravan'

The Cess­na C208B Grand Car­a­van (reg­is­tra­tion D-FDLR) was con­vert­ed in­to a fly­ing au­di­to­ri­um by the Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter's (DLR) Oberp­faf­fen­hofen flight fa­cil­i­ty.
BO 105 flying in the quarry
BO 105 fly­ing in the quar­ry
Image 8/12, Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

BO 105 flying in the quarry

DLR BO 105 re­search he­li­copter in flight above the lake at the base of the quar­ry.
DLR hangar in Braunschweig
DLR hangar in Braun­schweig
Image 9/12, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

DLR hangar in Braunschweig

View of the large hangar at the DLR site in Braun­schweigt.
Dornier DO 228-101 research aircraft (registration D-CODE)
Dornier DO 228-101 re­search air­craft (reg­is­tra­tion D-CODE)
Image 10/12, Credit: © DLR. All rights reserved

Dornier DO 228-101 research aircraft (registration D-CODE)

The Dornier DO 228-101 re­search air­craft (reg­is­tra­tion D-CODE) is used by the Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (Deutsches Zen­trum für Luft- und Raum­fahrt; DLR) for a range of ex­per­i­ments.
Dassault Falcon 2000LX iSTAR (D-BDLR)
Das­sault Fal­con 2000LX iS­TAR (D-BDLR)
Image 11/12, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Dassault Falcon 2000LX iSTAR (D-BDLR)

IS­TAR stands for In-flight Sys­tems & Tech­nol­o­gy Air­borne Re­search. As an in-flight sim­u­la­tor, it will ex­pand DLR's fleet of re­search air­craft and help both to in­crease knowl­edge about au­to­mat­ed and un­crewed flight and to im­ple­ment more ad­vanced pi­lot as­sis­tance sys­tems.
DLR Flight Facility Oberpfaffenhofen
DLR Flight Fa­cil­i­ty Oberp­faf­fen­hofen
Image 12/12, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

DLR Flight Facility Oberpfaffenhofen

The DLR Flight Fa­cil­i­ty Oberp­faf­fen­hofen is Eu­rope’s largest op­er­a­tor of re­search air­craft for at­mo­spher­ic re­search and earth ob­ser­va­tion. 

With 10 aircraft and helicopters, DLR's Flight Experiments (FX) Facility operates the largest civilian fleet of research aircraft in Europe. The Facility provides support to internal and external customers during the planning, execution and post-processing of scientific research missions focusing on flight research and airborne science. These research missions either use the aircraft as a carrier platform for scientific equipment or as a research object in aeronautical research.

Contact
  • Burkhard Wigger
    Head of De­part­ment
    Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (DLR)
    Flight Ex­per­i­ments
    Man­age­ment
    Telephone: +49 531 295 2930
    Lilienthalplatz 7
    38108 Braunschweig
    Contact
  • Martin Gestwa
    Head of Flight Fa­cil­i­ty Braun­schweig
    Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (DLR)
    Flight Ex­per­i­ments
    Telephone: +49 531 295-2240
    Lilienthalplatz 7
    38108 Braunschweig
    Contact
  • Ingmar Mayerbuch
    Head of Flight Fa­cil­i­ty Oberp­faf­fen­hofen
    Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (DLR)
    Flight Ex­per­i­ments
    Telephone: +49 8153 28-2962
    Fax: +49 8153 28-1347
    Münchener Straße 20
    82234 Weßling
DLR at a glance
DLR at a glance
DLR is the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its extensive research and development work in aeronautics, space, energy, transport and security is integrated into national and international cooperative ventures.
Credit: DLR
Infrastructure
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    Flight Ex­per­i­ments fa­cil­i­ty: num­ber of PhD stu­dents (2020)

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    2020
  • 10,3
    13

    Flight Ex­per­i­ments fa­cil­i­ty: num­ber of ISI/Sco­pus peer-re­viewed pub­li­ca­tions (2016-2020)

  • 10,3
    10
    ISI/Scopus peer-reviewed publications (open access)
  • 10,3
    3
    ISI/Scopus peer-reviewed publications (restricted)
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    Flight Ex­per­i­ments fa­cil­i­ty: num­ber of peer-re­viewed jour­nal con­tri­bu­tions (2016-2020)

  • 11,2
    11
    peer-reviewed articles (open access)
  • 11,2
    2
    peer-reviewed articles (restricted)

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