DLR_Uni_Summer_School once again brings students from all over Germany into the air Promoting young talent with flight experiments and simulator flights

After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the DLR_Uni_Summer_School will once again be held in Braunschweig from 26 to 30 September. Students from all over Germany will then have the unique opportunity to put the theoretical knowledge they have acquired in advance into practice during research flights. The course is organised by Technische Universität Braunschweig and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The five-day DLR_Uni_Summer_School programme will be attended by 36 students from aerospace-oriented universities from Aachen to Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. The special features of the Summer School are participation in flight experiments and a look behind the scenes of a research flight operation.

Taking off with the new TU research aircraft

The research flights were carried out with the Reims Cessna F406 “D-ILAB” of the Institute of Flight Guidance (IFF) at TU Braunschweig, which is using the new research aircraft for the first time for the DLR_Uni_Summer_School: The D-ILAB, a twin-engine aircraft with propeller turbines, has been available to the institute since 2020. The aircraft has already been used in student laboratories at TU Braunschweig as well as research projects over the North Sea and the Black Forest. During the DLR_Uni_Summer_School, the aircraft can accommodate up to four students in addition to the two pilots.

DLR single-engine aircraft for summer school in Braunschweig

The second aircraft used for the DLR_Uni_Summer_School is DLR’s Cessna 208B Grand Caravan “D-FDLR”. This single-engine turboprop aircraft is stationed at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen and has been transferred to Braunschweig for the summer school to foster young talent. In addition to seats for the pilots, this aircraft also offers space for six students on individual measuring stations.

All participating students will familiarise themselves in advance with the subject matter of the individual flight tests and the theoretical basics. During the summer school, they will be professionally supervised by the scientific staff of DLR and TU Braunschweig – with the aim of being able to record all relevant data during the flight. The flight experiments will focus on longitudinal stability and other flight conditions and manoeuvres. For this purpose, measurement data is recorded by the students and subsequently evaluated on the ground. At the end of the week, the recorded data and results are presented.

During this week, the students will also enjoy simulator flights at DLR, specialised lectures at the Institute of Flight Guidance with the main focus on flight data evaluation. In addition, they can visit facilities at the Braunschweig Wolfsburg research airport. Students have the opportunity to get in touch with scientists at the research airport campus for later student work, internships and their future careers.