Test pilot


A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers known as flight test techniques.
In the 1950s, test pilots were being killed at the rate of about one a week, but the risks have shrunk to a fraction of that due to the maturation of aircraft technology, better ground-testing and simulation of aircraft performance, fly-by-wire technology and lately, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to test experimental aircraft features. Still, piloting experimental aircraft remains more dangerous than most other types of flying.

Test pilot qualifications

A test pilot must be able to:
Test pilots must have an excellent knowledge of aeronautical engineering, in order to understand how and why planes are tested. They must be above-average pilots with excellent analytical skills and the ability to fly accurately whilst following a flight plan.
Test pilots can be experimental and engineering test pilots or production test pilots ; many test pilots would perform both roles during their careers. Modern test pilots often receive formal training from highly-selective military test pilot schools, although other test pilots receive training and experience from civilian institutions and/or manufacturers' test pilot development programs.

History

Test flying as a systematic activity started during the First World War, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the United Kingdom.
An "Experimental Flight" was formed at the Central Flying School.
During the 1920s, test flying was further developed by the RAE in the UK, and by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the United States. In the 1950s, NACA was transformed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. During these years, as work was done into aircraft stability and handling qualities, test flying evolved towards a more qualitative scientific profession. At the insistence of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first American astronauts, the Mercury Seven, were all military test pilots, as were some of the later astronauts.
The world's oldest test pilot school is what is now called the Empire Test Pilots' School, at RAF Boscombe Down in the UK. There are a number of similar establishments over the world. In America, the United States Air Force Test Pilot School is located at Edwards Air Force Base, the United States Naval Test Pilot School is located at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland and EPNER, the French test pilot school, is located in Istres, France. The only civilian school in the United States is the National Test Pilot School, a not-for-profit educational institute located in Mojave, California. In Russia, there is a Russian aviation industry Fedotov Test Pilot School located in Zhukovsky within the Gromov Flight Research Institute.

Notable test pilots