The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) is a military unit that trains experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to carry out test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. The school was established on September 9, 1944 as the Flight Test Training Unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio. To take advantage of the uncongested skies and superb flying weather, the school was moved on February 4, 1951 to its present location at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of Southern California.
The Test Pilot School was created to formalize and standardize test pilot training in order to reduce the high accident rate during the 1940s and increase the number of productive test flights. In response to the increasing complexity of aircraft and their electronic systems, the school added training programs for flight test engineers and flight test navigators. Between 1962 and 1972, the school included astronaut training for military test pilots, but these classes were dropped when the U.S. Air Force manned spaceflight mission was eliminated. Class size has historically been small with recent classes composed of approximately twenty students. The school is a component of the 412th Test Wing of the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC).
Mission
The mission of the USAF Test Pilot School is to produce highly-adaptive, critical-thinking flight test professionals to lead and conduct full-spectrum test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. Performing this mission allows the school to fulfill the vision of being the world’s premiere educational and training center of excellence for theoretical and applied flight test engineering.
Selection process
- Admission into the USAF TPS is extremely competitive. The best and the brightest of the flying world compete to attend this School. It is not uncommon for potential students to be alternatives two or three times before getting accepted.
- civilians are also permitted and encouraged to apply for the long course program
- Prospective students should provide AF Form 1711, USAF Test Pilot School Application, plus additional forms specific to a)USAF Pilot/Navigator, b) Experimental FTE, and c) Civilian applicant for the selection board.
- Experimental FTE and civilian applicants are required to undergo a flying Class III physical prior to the TPS selection board
- Applications must be received by Special Flying Programs Section HQ AFPC/DPAOT3 no later than 45 days before the selection boards meets. USAF selection boards are held once a year at the Headquarters of the Air Force Personnel Center. The boards are normally held in November and the board selects the TPS two classes for the next year. It is at this point that AFIT-TPS students, and students for foreign TPS schools are also selected. The USAF TPS Commandant Chairs the Chair of the Board. Board members consist of a HQ AFPC Colonel, and at least a majority of the board members must be TPS graduates (Majors or Lieutenant Colonels) who are standing flight test squadron commanders. The AFMC/DO selects board members.
Admission requirements
As of July 2009, the admission requirements for application to the USAF TPS are:
- Grade Point Average (GPA) is on a 4.0 scale.
- Military standards for flying duty are defined in Air Force Instruction 48-123, Volume 3, Attachment 4.
- Air Force Specialty Codes listed for engineers include:
- 13XX—Operations: Space, Missile, Command and Control
- 14NX—Operations: Intelligence
- 21AX—Logistics: Aircraft Maintenance
- 21CX—Logistics: (not found)
- 21LX—Logistics: Logistician
- 21MX—Logistics: Munitions and Missile Maintenance
- 33SX—Support: Communications and Information
- 61SX—Acquisition: Scientist
- 62EX—Acquisition: Developmental Engineer
- 63AX—Acquisition: Acquisition Manager
Exchange program
From time to time, students are selected to attend different test pilot schools in an exchange program between test cultures. In this vein, students can be sent to the Naval Test Pilot School in Pax River, Md to learn testing techniques from the Navy. Also, USAF TPS has an exchange program with the Empire Test Pilots' School at Boscombe Down in the United Kingdom, and EPNER (École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception), France’s Test Pilot School.
Graduation
- The USAF TPS curriculum is designed to grant a Masters of Science in Flight Test Engineering at the end of the 48 week course (currently seeking approval from Department of Education). Students are required to take all of the 20 offered courses in order to graduate. This is a total of 50 credit hours for the 48 week course. Each of the 4 phases is broken down into 3 or 4 main lecture courses. Along with these courses there are allocated Laboratories or Simulator work and flights. To graduate from the USAF TPS, a student must be in good standing and satisfactorily complete all academic tests, oral and written reports, curriculum flying missions, and complete the comprehensive written and oral evaluations with an overall GPA ≥ 3.0 and in good standing.
- American Council of Education (ACE) accreditation has been in place since July 1974 (updated July 1998) to recommend selected coursework for transfer credit to other higher institutions.
- The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity of the Department of Education (NACIQI – DOE) will be reviewing the USAF TPS program the first week of April 2007. The results from this board will be then taken to Congress where it will be determined if full graduate school accreditation status will be awarded to TPS. Once this is approved, USAF TPS hopes to grant the Master of Science in Flight Test Engineering (M.S.F.T.E.) to its graduates.
- At graduation, the Commandant presents the following
- Liethen-Tittle Award to the experimental test pilot graduate with the best overall record for outstanding performance and academic excellence.
- R.L. Jones Award to the outstanding experimental test navigator or experimental flight test engineer graduate with the best overall record for outstanding performance and academic excellence.
- Designates up to 10 percent of the graduates for each class as distinguished graduates.
Curriculum
- There are two classes held a year, each 48 weeks each (aka long class). There are 3 tracks that students can apply for: Experimental Test Pilot (ETP), Flight Test Engineer (FTE), or Flight Test Navigator (FTN). The upper class is called the senior class, while the lower class are called the juniors, determined by what point they are at in their studies at TPS. The class size at TPS varies. Over the past few years there have been over 20 TPS students per class.
- 4 main subdisciplines taught by the USAF TPS Education Division:
- Performance
- Flying Qualities
- Systems
- Test Management
- TPS also offers short courses in the following areas
- Aerospace Vehicle Test Course
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Test Engineering
- Electronic Warfare Flight Test Engineering
- Test Management
- Equations of Motion
- Propulsion
- Senior Executive Course
- Organization of the class uses the following chain of command
- Commandant—TPS Commander
- Deputy Commandant—TPS Deputy Commander
- Class Leader— assigned by the front office based on seniority and academic curriculum to assist the student population
- Students
- Facilities include
- two fully functional Control Rooms
- RADAR and Electro-Optics Labs
- Variable-Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft or VISTA
- student library
- 100 airborne laboratories over the course of the academic year from Mig-15 to B-2
History
Early years
Although the US military had been evaluating aircraft since Lt. Benny Foulois flew with Orville Wright in 1909, the designation of "test pilot" was not formally applied until a contingent of McCook Field pilots was assigned to a Testing Squadron at Wright Field during World War I. Test pilot selection was a seemingly indiscriminate process yielding a mix of experienced pilots who had volunteered for the task, flight instructors who were simply assigned to the job, and the occasional officer fresh from flying school. One of the latter, Lt. Donald Putt, who would later rise to Lieutenant General, recalled:
Test pilot training was nearly as informal as the selection process with most material directed toward the aeronautical engineers who supervised the tests. Reports and texts of this time provided little guidance regarding how tests should be flown. The best training for test pilots came from practical experience gained while flying as observers and hangar-talk tutorials from other pilots. A test pilot was not expected to have a formal engineering background. He was simply to follow the instructions on the test card and fly the airplane appropriately. Setting the standard to overcome this condition were test pilots such as Jimmy Doolittle. While at McCook Field, Doolittle served as a test pilot but was given leave
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