Presage Attends the Textron Aviation 2026 Safety Standdown

At the Flight Test Safety Workshop in Dallas on May 6th, Presage CEO Dr. Martin Smith was pleased to take part in the event and present insights on human factors in the flight test environment. His talk focused on the “perfect storm” that forms when brain function, personal biases, and personality traits intersect with safety and risk management and how these invisible threats can shape decisions long before any mechanical or human error issues appear.

Flight test programs work as shared ecosystems. When one part of that system hesitates, misses a cue, or doesn’t speak up, the whole operation feels it. One idea that stood out in his talk was the gut signal: the subtle, preverbal sense that something is off. In high stakes environments, this “felt sense” is often the very first hint that a threat is emerging. It’s quick, instinctive, and rooted in pattern recognition long before conscious reasoning occurs.

Dr. Smith’s message underscored that paying attention to these human signals is part of flight test safety. When teams acknowledge them, check in with each other, and make sure they share the same mental model, risks surface earlier, and risk mitigation decisions improve.