69th Annual Symposium & Banquet - Call for Abstracts

THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS - 69th SYMPOSIUM & BANQUET

The Grand Californian Hotel - Anaheim, California
24-27 September 2025

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS - The 2025 Symposium Chairman is Lt Col Bryan "Rico" Kelly, USAF (M)

Since 1957, professionals in the international flight test community have gathered with friends and colleagues at the annual “S&B” to discuss new and emerging concepts and share lessons learned in the pursuit of enhanced flight test safety, effectiveness, and efficiency. The foundation for this interchange is built on technical presentations from SETP members and non-members - the flight test community at large.

Presentations for the 2025 Symposium will be selected based on their technical strength and potential to educate attendees. Regardless of how long you have been involved in flight test, you have the potential to enlighten this symposium and our community. Tailor your submission to provide value to a diverse international audience. Each technical presentation selected is given a 30-minute slot, including 25 minutes for the technical presentation and 5 minutes for questions from the audience.  

Presenters are eligible for one of three different awards.

  • The η "Eta" Award recognizes the best presentation that demonstrates how new or refined test techniques, imaginative data collection and processing, or novel approaches resulted in better test execution.
  • The Javier Arango Memorial Award recognizes presenters who share Javier’s passion for aviation history and the connection between pilot and aircraft. The award is given to the best presentation that focuses on aviation history or the human-machine interface.
  • The Ray E. Tenhoff Award, one of only three awards established in the SETP Constitution, was enacted in 1962 to recognize the best all-around presentation of a paper at the Annual Symposium. Submission of a written manuscript will be required to be eligible for the Tenhoff Award.

Although only required for Tenhoff Award eligibility, manuscripts will be gratefully accepted. A written paper is the most effective method for documenting and disseminating original and important information; written lessons are much more likely to be passed along within our organizations and community. For Tenhoff eligibility a completed manuscript, releasable to the SETP membership, must be submitted no less than 24 hours prior to the opening day of the Symposium. Manuscripts received after this deadline will still be published online; however, these will not be considered for Tenhoff Award eligibility.

PLEASE NOTE:  PRESENTATIONS MUST BE TECHNICALLY ORIENTED, NOT SALES ORIENTED.  AVOID DIRECT REFERENCE TO COMPETING SYSTEMS. PRESENTATIONS THAT VIOLATE THIS GUIDANCE WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED OR DISSEMINATED.

Presentation abstracts for the 69th S&B should be submitted by following the instructions at https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/5711/submitter.

Abstracts should be no more than 250 words with titles ten words or less. Your abstract should focus on the key points of your presentation and the most important lessons learned. The deadline for abstract submission is 30 June 2025.

NOTE: Once you have submitted your abstract, you should receive an email confirming your submission was successful.  If you do not receive that email, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.