Academics. Do we have any USAF TPS grads from 1968? The year and order in which a class started. [2] 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. It’s virtually impossible for one person to know everything about the airplane so build your teams, study hard and trust the teams. The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of the Air Force or the information, products, or services contained therein. U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Two Air Force Academy graduates from the Class of 2019 have been nominated to attend the Air Force Test Pilot School in 2022 as part of a new training partnership between the two institutions. Military training. The school encourages applications from civilians, personnel from other U.S. military services, and individuals from foreign countries. He said the current candidacy system occasionally suffers from a limited return on investment from its graduates. 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 scho… Capt. This date is usually much later than the aircraft entered USAF service. )", "Graduate Course Catalog and Student Handbook, 2007-08", "Milestones in Aerospace History at Edwards AFB", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_U.S._Air_Force_Test_Pilot_School_alumni&oldid=984660458, Lists of American people by school affiliation, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, From specified U.S. contractors and government agencies. Alexander Hillman; Capt. The school's mission is to produce experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to lead and conduct test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. This is a 12-week hands-on program to train personnel in the fundamentals of space domain test and evaluation as part of the USSF effort … Check out the latest from Daniel's tour of all things geeky in the Golden State, with jaunts into Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon, as well. “If you don’t remember anything else, remember never, never, never, never, ever, let your guard down,” said Morgenfeld. Ultimately, what that means is that these students spend a year in a variety of classes, and flying a wide range of planes, learning to identify problems with new aircraft before they are deployed and pilots who don't know how to handle those issues find themselves in dire circumstances. If I was a betting man, I would wager that leadership weighed in heavily on the design of this particular class patch, since it was such a high-visibility milestone in the the USAF TPS history. In 1963, the Test Pilot School's most famous graduate -- Chuck Yeager -- attempted to break the world's altitude record in one, before crashing it at Edwards Air Force Base. Second Lts. This article first appeared in the January 2018 Flight Test News. The following graduates of the USAF Test Pilot School are listed in the roles for which they are most notable. There’s just things you don’t know so keep your guard up at all times. I've come to Edwards -- and to the Test Pilot School -- as part of Road Trip 2012, and as a fan of the great film about the beginnings of the space race, "The Right Stuff," I'm very familiar with some of the base's most famous exploits. January 8, 2018 January 19, 2020 admin flight test Flight Test News, FTN, January 2018, SFTE. USAF Test Pilot School March 24 at 8:57 AM #USAFTPSTuesday We’re going to pause our # USAFTPSTuesday updates while we deal with COVID-19 impacts—we’ll resume updates later. “New airplanes and new systems will be just waiting to jump on you. As each graduate crossed the stage they received the graduate plaque from TPS, the diploma from Air University and the graduate coin. And today, to commemorate the import of the event that ushered in the supersonic era, the aircraft hangs from the ceiling in the entryway of the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Yeager is also probably the most famous graduate of the U.S. Air Force's Test Pilot School (PDF), which has its home at Edwards and puts between 40 and 48 of America's (and some of its allies') best military pilots through a rigorous, year-long program, training this "cream of the crop" to be able to conduct a myriad of tests on experimental Air Force planes in order to "identify problems before they become chronic," said Paul Meyer, the colonel in charge of the school's instruction program. The year and order in which a class started. The school teaches several sub-disciplines, Meyer told me. The Onizuka Prop Wash Award recognizes the student at the United States Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) who contributed most to class spirit and morale. During their year, the students will spend quite a bit of time in a Flight Quality simulator, learning many of the skills about how to handle planes in difficult circumstances that they'll eventually have to employ in the sky. The planes Jason Thomas; Capt. Story by Jennifer Spradlin, June 25, 2019. The class of 24 flight testers graduated June 8th, 2018. For civilians who have not served in the armed forces and therefore do not have military rank. [3], Between 1962 and 1972, the Test Pilot School expanded its role to include astronaut training for military test pilots. In 1947, Capt. The commanding officer of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) is known as its Commandant.
The idea here is that the program -- which gives its graduates accredited master's degrees in applied flight test engineering -- is the place "where the world comes to educate future test leaders," Meyer explained. [3], The school's mission is to produce experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to lead and conduct test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. The Test Pilot School requires a degree, and Yeager may well be the only graduate in the institution's history without one. The lieutenants will enter master’s degree programs, serve approximately eight months in a test unit at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and move directly into TPS — provided they are confirmed by the Air Force Material Command operations chief at the upcoming Test Falcon selection board. Athletics. [6] An exchange program allows selected students to attend other test pilot schools including the United States Naval Test Pilot School, the United Kingdom's Empire Test Pilots' School, and France's EPNER.[7]. .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}  *   Individual was killed in an aviation-related accident. Although the Test Pilot School may have the claim to being Edwards' most elite institution, it's the daily work done by the pilots in the 412th Test Wing that makes the most immediate impact for the Air Force. The following list provides a complete list of commandants of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. As it happens, my visit coincided with the first day of a new class of students, 24 accomplished pilots in for perhaps the toughest year of their life. “We needed to reverse the trend by recruiting younger officers into the field while also eliminating the risk we were taking on by selecting relatively unknown candidates through the conventional process,” he said. Test Wing A lofty claim perhaps, yet the diversity and breadth of the flight test education and training conducted at NTPS is unsurpassed in the industry. JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH --Application packages for the 2019 U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School selection board are due by May 29.The USAF TPS selection board will convene at the Air Force’s Personnel Center July 29 - Aug. 2, and will consider Total Force officer and current Air Force civilian applicants to attend training as early as July 2020. Every day, pilots there take airplanes up in the air in order to evaluate them, or some new system. [3] The commandant also chairs a board of officers that selects the school's students. “I think this program is just another way to help expose cadets to opportunities in the Air Force,” Neff said. [7], Between 1962 and 1972, the Test Pilot School expanded its role to include astronaut training for military test pilots. Such links provided are consistent with the stated purpose of this DOD Web site. The National Test Pilot School (NTPS) is the Premier Total Flight Test Education and Training Organization in the World. This starter plane gives them a chance to learn to plug in flying parameters before getting into a more expensive Air Force plane, Meyer explained. The idea is for them to find errors, so errors can be fixed before the plane fails in some way. [6] 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. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and morale, welfare and recreation sites, the Department of the Air Force does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. USAF TPS Graduates 20. [6] Edwards AFB is the home of the Air Force Flight Test Center and has been an integral part of flight testing for over fifty years.

This year of training culminated in the awarding of a Masters of Science degree in Flight Test Engineering and the coveted Test Pilot School Graduate patch, aka the Patch. Weston Hanoka; Capt. Yeager would likely have been a member of the Mercury program, NASA's first set of astronauts, but he didn't have a college degree. Thirty-seven TPS graduates of this era were selected for the U.S. space program, and twenty-six went on to earn astronaut's wings by flying in the X-15, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs. According to Meyer, the students, who are chosen from among many more applicants than there are spaces in the program, spend their year learning the skills required to put Air Force planes through their paces so that when less experienced pilots get their hands on them in combat, or other situations, there's no question that the aircraft are up to the task at hand. The Test Pilot School requires a degree, and Yeager may well be the only graduate in the institution's history without one.
Daniel Welch. For example, 07A was the first of two classes to start in 2007. Over the years, it has graduated 2,760 students -- 62 of whom have become astronauts. Or, as my host, public affairs officer John Haire put it to me more bluntly, "We want to find errors here before some lieutenant who doesn't know the aircraft gets killed.". Between 1962 and 1972, the Test Pilot School expanded its role to include astronaut training for military test pilots. By learning to trust their own instincts, they can figure out how to adapt when airborne trouble arises. The table contains their name, rank, dates as commandant, the TPS class from which they graduated (if applicable), and notable events that occurred during their tenure at the school. Matthew Illowsky; Capt.

As they proceed through the program, they are given a shot at flying as many as 20 different aircraft during their year at Edwards. It is something we are working on and planning to publish to commemorate our 50th anniversary.