Flight Testing, what goes on?

[poadeleted21]

Went on a XC flight today, kept hearing strange requests to ATC. A plane wanting blocks of airspace from 42,000' to 45,000', he'd go back and land at GPI then do it again. this went on for the few hours that I was in the area.

My pilot buddy riding with me had internet access so he put the N-Number in and it turned out to be a Dassault Falcon 2000EX without an airworthiness date and it sounded like they were doing flight tests.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=2000A


Why was a french built plane doing flight tests over northwestern montana? What were they doing going up that high then bombing back down for?

 

[wabower]

I'm guessing it was something that required the airplane to be flown between FL420 and FL450. Note that flight levels with standard altimeter settings are used (as opposed to altitudes) above 18k.

The flights could have been performance related, or emergency descent tests, or avionics, or RVSM related, or data gathering for simulator engineering, or FAA certification or who knows what. In addition, much of the completion and final certification work is done in the US. Little Rock, AR is the home of one of Falcon's major completion and refurb centers.

Went on a XC flight today, kept hearing strange requests to ATC. A plane wanting blocks of airspace from 42,000' to 45,000', he'd go back and land at GPI then do it again. this went on for the few hours that I was in the area.

My pilot buddy riding with me had internet access so he put the N-Number in and it turned out to be a Dassault Falcon 2000EX without an airworthiness date and it sounded like they were doing flight tests.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=2000A


Why was a french built plane doing flight tests over northwestern montana? What were they doing going up that high then bombing back down for?