37th SFTE European Symposium Concludes in Berlin

The 37th Society of Flight Test Engineers European Symposium was held 7–10 June in Berlin, Germany, bringing together more than 100 flight test professionals from across Europe and around the world for four days of technical exchange, professional recognition, and community building.

Built around the theme “Dreams and Hard Realities in Flight Test — Dream Big, Test Harder,” the symposium featured a broad technical program covering flight test standards, qualification guidelines, certification, safety-critical systems, UAVs, artificial intelligence, data acquisition, flight test training, and operational lessons learned. Sessions included presentations from organizations such as DLR, Airbus, Leonardo, NLR, ITPS, ETPS, INTA, Myriad, Gulfstream, BAE Systems, Indian Air Force, TAI, Politecnico di Milano, and others.
The program also included memorable networking events, a campfire session, gala dinner, and technical tours to ILA Berlin airshow and Rolls-Royce Dahlewitz. Attendees also had the opportunity to see Berlin’s historic aerospace heritage, including a 1930s-era vertical wind tunnel — a reminder that today’s flight test challenges stand on nearly a century of experimentation, engineering courage, and hard-earned lessons.
 
At the Awards Banquet, Lyssandre Ramos was recognized for Best Presentation for his work on cost-effective flutter testing methods for general aviation.  Sebastian Rommel was presented with a Directors Award for his work as Treasurer of the European SFTE Chapter.



SFTE President Jeff Canclini also announced Tom Esser of Boeing as the recipient of the Empire Test Pilots’ School scholarship.

Tom Esser Winner of Empire TPS Scholarship
  
A major milestone for SFTE was the presentation of a Recommended Practices Certificate of Recognition to DLR. DLR becomes the third organization recognized by SFTE and the first European organization to receive this recognition — an important step in expanding the international adoption of flight test engineering development standards.

 DLR Receiving Recommended Practices Certificate


 ILA Airshow

Canclini closed the technical sessions with a call to action for SFTE members and the broader flight test community to advocate for stronger Flight Test Engineer development standards within their own organizations.

SFTE extends its thanks to the European Symposium organizing team, sponsors, presenters, award recipients, and all attendees who made Berlin 2026 such a successful and energizing event. The future of flight test depends on developing people, sharing lessons learned, and strengthening professional standards — and Berlin showed that momentum is growing.

Vertical Wind Tunnel Tour