USMC H-1 Upgrade flight test; a systems engineering approach

In today's flight test world, systems engineering principles are becoming more accepted. Flight test engineers in the Navy and Marine Corps flight test community have used systems engineering concepts for quite some time; however, their involvement has been historically limited to the post, initial development phase. On the H-1 Upgrades program, Naval Acquisition Managers brought in the flight testers at the critical design review phase. This early involvement permitted the government and contractor to become partners throughout the development process. True to the "requirements driven" Systems Engineering (SE) philosophy, this government relationship with the contractor enables the user's needs to be met more readily. This paper discusses the learning process used throughout the H-1 Upgrades program as well as present proven SE tools used in the flight test program to include proper planning, execution, and reporting.