[Serow225]

This is done during flight test of prototype aircraft (and probably spacecraft as well to some extent, I haven't done that) - the data acquisition system on a flight test plane is incredibly advanced, and the data gets beamed down in realtime to a group of (real) engineers on the ground in the flight test station who analyze the data and communicate back and forth to the pilots again in real time. All in real time, the test pilots will decide what/how maneuvers to do based on learnings captured/analyzed, change the configuration of the aircraft systems/surfaces, intentionally induce failure conditions and faults, ... It's a real ballet between the engineers on the ground and the pilots, when the team is working well together. As you said, post-event debriefing, detailed analysis, recommendations/reports, aircraft changes etc are started immediately when the aircraft lands, to prepare for the next flight. It's very intense, but also very rewarding and a lot of fun.

[CWuestefeld]

beamed down in realtime to a group of (real) engineers on the ground

I assume this is in reference to use of the term "race engineer" in F1.

I can assure you that the sport does use real engineers, and very intensely so. Folks like Adrian Newey would qualify as engineers by anyone's definition, and each team has heaps of MechE's, EEs, software engineers, even materials engineers, back at home base.

[oesmith]

.. not to mention that there's a lot of overlap between aerospace and F1 engineering. Plenty of the engineers (even the trackside ones) started out studying aero engineering.

[henningo]

Yes, that makes sense, thanks for the insight.