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DLR’s Dornier 328 “UpLift” flying testbed on static display at ILA Berlin 2026.
BERLIN—Certification by analysis, an approach that replaces some tests with virtual assessments, may contribute to maturing technologies faster, Markus Fischer, divisional board member for aeronautics at German aerospace research center DLR, said June 10.
When the long-pursued idea materializes, it may help a new technology make its way into an aircraft system or component. The current approach essentially involves expensive testing, which certification by analysis may partly supplant. It may support the European aerospace industry’s ongoing endeavor, as it is looking for ways to both embark on new technologies on future aircraft—such as Airbus’ next-generation, single-aisle—and shorten the research and development cycle.
DLR has been working to have certification by analysis broadly accepted. “We are preparing the future framework program [the EU’s research and innovation funding plan], and I am pretty sure certification by analysis will be part of it,” Fischer said, speaking during a panel discussion on the EU’s Clean Aviation joint undertaking organized at ILA Berlin. “[If you] work as much as possible in a virtual design space and exploit every design opportunity, going to the design’s limits, the corners of the envelope, you may be able to determine whether continuing is worthwhile.” With a conventional approach, testing quickly becomes expensive, meaning ideas perceived as risky are left out, he added.
Certification by analysis still relies on testing to some extent. “I can check the design space more thoroughly and determine at which step I still have to test something in a physical manner,” Fischer said. The approach uses previous tests and analogies, resulting in a dataset to discuss with certification authorities, he emphasized. “At the beginning, you have to test more to gain trust,” he noted.
DLR tried the method with Airbus A320 flaps, also integrating certification authorities in the team. “Doing so, you can work out the means of acceptance, when you say, ‘Instead of testing, I am doing it by theoretical analogy,”’ Fischer said. “Comparing the virtual approach to existing test results, it worked.”
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