was the golden era of US flight-test,
and 26 men made the grade to become
astronauts, flying the X-15, Gemini,
Apollo and Space Shuttle.
After 1972, the year the Flight Test
Training Unit was renamed as the Test
Pilot School, astronaut training stopped,
but in the years to come many graduates
were selected by NASA (the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration).
One of them is the current chief test pilot
at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research
Center at Edwards AFB, Nils Larson. He
graduated from TPS class 95A.
Today, the school throws open its doors
to personnel from other US military
branches and students from around the
world, but making the grade to even
set foot inside the hallowed corridors
remains a tough task.The course
As the second oldest test pilot school in
the world after the British Empire Test
Pilots’ School (ETPS) at Boscombe Down,
there is no shortage of candidates eager
to follow in the footsteps of their illustrious
forebears. Every year around 300 potential
attendees are whittled down for the 40
available places. A first round of selection
gets the pool down to about 60 possible
students for the two annual classes. A final
round of screening brings this down to 40
students for the year.
The entry standard is high. Fighter
pilots must have a minimum of 500
flying hours, and pilots of larger transport
aircraft 750 hours. Although half of the
fighter pilots have a master’s degree,
it is not an absolute necessity. ForFrank Visserhttp://www.combataircraft.net // March 2018 89
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