ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Experimental Aircraft Programme

An experimental aircraft programme is like when you play with toys to see if they work the way you want them to. But instead of toys, it is airplanes that grown-ups made. These planes are not sure if they will fly well or not because they are a new design. So, they are called experimental planes.

The grown-ups who built them want to learn more about how they work and how they can make them better. To do this, they make the planes do different things like fly in a circle or go up really high. They watch the plane while it does these things and take notes. Then they think about what they can do to make the plane better.

The grown-ups keep testing and changing the experimental planes until they are happy with the results. Sometimes they make special parts for the planes that no one has used before to see if they work better. Once they are happy with the experimental planes, they can use what they learned to make better planes for people to fly in every day.