DLR and Dassault sign purchase contract for the flight test vehicle iSTAR

On 25 April 2018, at the Berlin Air Show ILA 2018, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and Dassault signed the purchase contract for a Falcon 2000 LX twinjet in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The agreement involves the delivery of the aircraft and its conversion into the flight test vehicle iSTAR (in-flight Systems and Technology Airborne Research) by 2020. With iSTAR, it is possible to test (in real conditions) the flight characteristics of newly designed, real or virtual aircraft within the iSTAR flight envelope, including the in-flight simulation of unmanned systems. In addition, iSTAR will serve as test bed in the classic fields of aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, structures, propulsion, flight control and flight guidance. Continue reading →