USAF TEST PILOT SCHOOL – GRADUATE – MORALE

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Computer made/NOT mounted on velcro   3.5 inches – 90mm

 

USAF TEST PILOT SCHOOL

Located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Southern California, the United States Test Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) enjoys the perfect environment for conducting flight test education and development. Clear flying conditions nearly every day of the year, combined with the Air Force Flight Test Center resources, makes Edwards Air Force Base a great training location. Since its creation in 1944, the school has produced an elite list of roughly 3260 graduates. Alumni include World War II flying aces, astronauts, generals, famous first flight pilots and many of today’s innovative flight test leaders. In addition, there are over 325 international graduates from 24 countries, enhancing allied capabilities and international cooperation. In accordance with our motto, the school believes that Knowledge is Power. To continue to be the center of expertise for Air Force developmental test and evaluation techniques and theory, the curriculum is reviewed and modified as needed every 6 months. TPS has adapted over time to meet Air Force objectives. Focus has expanded due to specific national efforts, such as when the school provided astronaut training in the early days of space exploration. The length and depth of the course has grown—the school originally trained only pilots but later expanded to include navigators and engineers as systems engineering became standard. Then a remotely piloted aircraft pilot track was added to meet the need for expertise in unmanned aerial vehicle research and development. In more recent years the course began to include Weapons Systems Officers, Combat Systems Officers, and now Space Force members.

The fundamental key to success in aerospace flight test and evaluation is the individual member of the flight test team: the flight test pilot, of course, but nowadays the trained flight test engineer and navigator as well. Without him – and increasingly, her – the fundamental work of the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base would literally be impossible.

Bravery and flying skills of the highest order have always been requirements for the flight test mission, but much more is demanded of today’s flight test professionals: scientific and engineering knowledge, critical and reasoned judgment, and managerial skills of the first order. A well-devised flight test program, skillfully carried out, calls forth the absolute performance of the aircraft and its associated systems. Finding the people who are capable of planning and flying such a program is not easy, nor is the process automatic.

Contrary to the romanticized view of old Hollywood films, test pilots are not “born” to their talents – they are painstakingly made. Natural ability in the air is necessary, of course, but a delicate touch on the controls and absolute precision on the air are needed – not slapdash bravado.

The test pilot will be following carefully crafted flight profiles, not daring aerial maneuvers. They must be taught to handle his airplane with extraordinary precision: to control their airspeed to the nearest knot, and their altitude virtually to the foot–every time. Beyond this, the student test pilot must have a natural affinity for mechanical systems, an ability to “feel” the airplane and have a well-honed sense of what is happening at any given time. Mature and reasoned judgment is also vital – human lives, and millions of dollars, depend upon how carefully a test mission is planned and flown. But all these skills would be useless without knowledge and training – systematic training in gathering flight data, and then interpreting it. Minutes spent in precision flying must be matched by hours of painstaking effort at computers, in the library, and around the conference table.

It is obvious that in the world of flight testing, there simply is no room for “second best.” That is why the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) takes such efforts to make certain that its graduates are the equal to any in their profession.

The Test Pilot School is where the Air Force’s top pilots, navigators and engineers learn how to conduct flight tests and generate the data needed to carry out test missions. Human lives and millions of dollars depend upon how carefully a test mission is planned and flown. The comprehensive curriculum of Test Pilot School is fundamental to the success of flight test and evaluation.

Additional information

Weight 0.0000 kg
Dimensions 0.00 × 0.00 × 0.00 cm