The SFTE EC Jesualdo Martinez Award In Flight Testing has been created to commemorate our colleague and board member Jesualdo Martines Rodanes, who tragically deceased in the accident of A400M MSN 23, in Seville in May 2015.
The seventh Annual Symposium of the European Chapter was held at the "birth place" of the Chapter, Amsterdam, at the very impressive Aerospace Museum, the Aviodome, jointly hosted by Fokker, NLR and the Technical University of Delft.
More than 90 participants from 6 countries were registered and took part in the briefings, which covered fields as wide apart as how to make a Fokker 70 Prototype in 6 months and Flight Testing of Electronic Systems in Fighter Aircraft. During the symposium a draft copy of the brochure detailing the history of the European Chapter was handed out to all participants. The first copies were formally presented to members of the first board, President and "founder" Wim Dijkshoorn, Treasurer Erwin Reil and Vice President Gösta Niss.
The second day ended with a reception and symposium dinner in the Fokker sales centre. A very spirited speech was given by Professor Abbink, NLR Technical Director, who talked about the history of flight test instrumentation in the Netherlands.
The third day was devoted to technical tours, where visits were made, both to the Fokker aircraft factory assembly lines and flight test facilities at Schiphol-East, to the ground test facilities of the National Aerospace Laboratory and to the German-Dutch 9 by 9m wind tunnel in Emmeloord.
The spouses were also very well cared for with a programme that included the opportunity to go to the very famous garden, Keukenhof, with all the tulips and roses in bloom. The responsible quartet, Jan van Twisk from Fokker, Eric Krusysen from Delft University, Sam Storm van Leeuwen and Piet Kluit from NLR were much appreciated for the excellent organisation.