2. AIM: An Introduction to the Project

The European Specific Targeted Research Project (STReP) AIM—Advanced In-Flight Measurement Techniques was launched on the \(1\mathrm{st }\) of November 2006 and was finished by the \(30\mathrm{th }\) of April 2010. This project intended to make advanced, non-intrusive measurement techniques applicable for time and cost effective industrial flight testing as well as in-flight testing for research. In the AIM consortium, eleven Partners from aircraft industries, airport services and research organisations coming from seven countries were working closely together. AIM was coordinated by DLR in Göttingen. The purpose of the AIM program was to further develop measurement techniques in such a way that they can be routinely applied to flight tests, hence providing comprehensive planar information on various important parameters such as wing and propeller deformation, thermal loads on the structures of helicopters, the surface pressure distribution on a wing, density gradients of strong vortices generated by airplanes and helicopters and velocity flow fields near airplanes and helicopters. The chapter will provide a brief overview on the activities within AIM and the project itself.