Test Pilot

Test pilots work on developing, evaluating and proving experimental aircraft.

Qualifications

Required qualifications for a test pilot include:

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• Understanding a test plan;
• Sticking to a test plan, flying a plane in a very highly specific way;
• Carefully documenting the results of each test;
• Having an excellent feel for the aircraft, and thus the ability to sense exactly how it is behaving oddly if it is doing so;
• Having excellent problem-solving skills if anything goes wrong with the aircraft during a test;
• Being able to cope with many different things going wrong at once, because they sometimes do.

Test pilots must have an excellent knowledge of aeronautical engineering, in order to understand how they are testing and why. Natural piloting ability is not as important as analytical skill, and the ability to follow a flight plan. Thrill-seeking sky-jocks need not apply, though this did not stop many of the American pilots during the 1950s, who later became astronauts. Despite their image as fun-loving dare-devils, their flying had to be ruthlessly precise and professional.

Related Topics:
Aeronautical engineering - Analytic - 1950s - Astronaut

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