The Empire Test Pilots’ School from Founding Principles to Future Direction: 70 Years of Flight Test Training

Mr Paul Edwards, Empire Test Pilots’ School, Aircraft Test & Evaluation Centre MOD Boscombe Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
Cdr Mark Macleod RN, Empire Test Pilots’ School, Aircraft Test & Evaluation Centre MOD Boscombe Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
Mr Dean Moore, Empire Test Pilots’ School, Aircraft Test & Evaluation Centre MOD Boscombe Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK

Abstract

Borne from a recognition that the nation needed a formal test pilot training course to evaluate the increasing complexity of the aircraft and weapons being designed as the Second World War progressed the world’s first dedicated establishment for the training of flight test professionals, welcomed its first student test pilots on 14 June 1943.

In October 1943, the first Commanding Officer, Wg Cdr Sammy Wroath AFC, in a report only recently uncovered, set forth the rationale for test flying, the attributes of a test pilot and the requirements of an enduring Test Pilot School. Seventy years later, Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) continues to train flight test professionals for the UK Ministry of Defence and international partners. But how do those founding principles continue to influence flight test training?

By tracing the development of the School, its aircraft and the scope of what is taught in the intense, year-long course, the paper looks at the evolution of flight test training, from the early years through countless fleet modernisation programmes to the changes introduced by the adoption of an EASA compliant syllabus. It discusses what qualities, training and skills flight test professionals require to evaluate future highly integrated, systems driven air vehicles and argue that the retention of a reliable flight test training capability remains a vital component in any nation’s aerospace strategy.