U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School

The U.S. Air Force Flight Test School is located on Edwards Air Force Base in California. Its mission is to produce test pilots and flight test engineers capable of testing new and experimental aircraft. The job is dangerous, and several test pilots have died as a result of the nature of experimental aircraft. While deaths due to hardware malfuctions are unavoidable, pilot errors ultimately are. This is why the test pilot school was established: to train already experienced pilots and engineers to eliminate as much human error as possible.

Related Topics:
Edwards Air Force Base - California - Test pilot - Flight test engineer - Experimental aircraft - Pilot error

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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 testing and flying experimental aircraft would be significantly more challenging.

Related Topics:
Flight test engineer - Navigator

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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.

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