SFTE President Visits UK Flight Test Community

For the final leg of his European tour, SFTE President Jeff Canclini traveled to the United Kingdom to visit BAE Systems, the Empire Test Pilots' School, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.
The tour began at BAE Systems in Warton, where FTE Manager Kenton Jones is actively developing professional training and encouraging his flight test engineers to join SFTE. Discussions centered on growing the partnership between SFTE and BAE Systems and on expanding professional development opportunities for the company's FTEs.

The following day, Canclini presented the 2025 FTE Scholarship plaque to Empire Test Pilots' School representatives Dave Widgington, Adam Robinson, and Alessandro Ramazzotti during a ceremony at the Royal Air Force Club in London.

The tour concluded with a lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London — "Flight Test in the Complex Domain: The Human Performance Challenge" — attended by flight testers from across the United Kingdom. Canclini examined how increasingly software-defined, autonomous, and integrated systems are pushing flight test into the complex domain, where team training, judgment, and organizational culture matter as much as methods and tools, and presented SFTE's Recommended Practices program as a practical path to strengthen FTE development and improve test effectiveness and risk management. The talk can be viewed on the RAeS YouTube channel here. Special thanks to Royal Aeronautical Society Flight Test Group Vice Chair Andy Wardle for coordinating the talk.

SFTE thanks Kenton Jones and the BAE Systems team, the Empire Test Pilots' School, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and all who helped make the UK visit—and the broader European tour—a resounding success.
 

SFTE President Canclini (center) with the BAE Systems flight test leadership team, Warton.


The 2025 FTE Scholarship plaque is presented to Empire Test Pilots’ School at the RAF Club. From left: Dave Widgington, Adam Robinson, SFTE President Jeff Canclini, and Alessandro Ramazzotti.


SFTE Fellow Guy Gratton (left), SFTE President Jeff Canclini (center), and RAeS Flight Test Group Chair Ben Lewis (right).


RAeS Flight Test Group Chair Ben Lewis introduces SFTE President Jeff Canclini.
 

Flight testers from across the UK filled the Royal Aeronautical Society for the lecture. View here