Dasa chief test pilot Wolfgang Schirdewahn
On Tuesday 18 May 1999 DA5, the Eurofighter Development aircraft from Dasa in Germany flew the 1000th flight with Wolfgang Schirdewahn at the controls
On May 5, 2000 the MiG-29 "Sniper" upgraded demonstrator aircraft performed its maiden flight, from Bacau airport, Romania. The MiG-29"Sniper", registered "White 67", took off at 17.11 (local time), with DASA's chief test pilot Wolfgang Schirdewann at the contols. It landed after 42 minutes at 17.53 (local time).
Wolfgang Schirdewahn was born in Bernburg, Germany on 17 May 1955. He joined the German Air Force in July 1974 for basic training, university (Engineering Degree in Air and Space Technology) and pilot training.He started his military flying with the Undergraduate Pilot Training at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas and after graduation he converted to the F 104 Starfighter at Luke Air Force Base. Thereafter he returned to Germany and started operational flying with Fighterbomber-Wing 32 in Lechfeld, both on F 104s and Tornados from 1984 onwards.
In 1986 he joined the Official Test Center in Germany and did his Testpilot training in 1987 at the Empire Test Pilots` School at Boscombe Down. After this training his tasks with the German OTC concentrated on the Tornado programme, where he was assigned Project Pilot.
In 1991 he left the German Air Force and joined the civilian company MBB (now EADS). Again he worked mainly in the Tornado programme but also participated in the Fanranger development. Since 1996 he his member of the Eurofighter team.
He did maiden flights on the Fanranger (2nd Pilot), Eurofighter DA 5 prototype and MIG 29 SNIPER Technology Demonstrator.
Some 4800 flighthours have been accumulated so far on various aircraft, mainly however fast-jets. In Oct 1995 he was appointed the Chief Test Pilot within the military section of the company.
He is member of SETP and was selected as Fellow in 2001.