thumb|[[Léon Lemartin, the world's first professional test pilot, by contract to Louis Blériot, August 20, 1910.]]

thumb|[[Jimmy Doolittle in 1928 with his Curtiss R3C-2, a year before he pioneered instrument flying]]

thumb|[[Chuck Yeager and the Bell X-1, first test pilot to break the sound barrier at Mach 1 in 1947]]

thumb|right|[[Neil Armstrong and the North American X-15 after a research test flight in 1960]]

A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.

History

Léon Lemartin was the world's first professional test pilot by contract to Louis Blériot on August 20, 1910. located in Zhukovsky within the Gromov Flight Research Institute.

Qualifications

Test pilots can be experimental and engineering test pilots (investigating the characteristics of new types of aircraft during development) or production test pilots (the more mundane role of confirming the characteristics of new aircraft as they come off the production line). Many test pilots would perform both roles during their careers. Modern test pilots often receive formal training from highly-selective military test pilot schools, but other test pilots receive training and experience from civilian institutions and/or manufacturers' test pilot development programs (see list of test pilot schools).

Notable test pilots (partial list)

  • Fernando Alonso, former Head of Airbus Flight Test
  • Milburn Apt, first U.S. Air Force test pilot to fly faster than Mach 3
  • Toktar Aubakirov, Soviet test pilot first Kazakh in space
  • Eric "Winkle" Brown, flew more aircraft types than any other pilot
  • Scott Crossfield, chief test pilot at North American Engineering
  • David P. Davies, chief test pilot for the UK Civil Aviation Authority
  • Aleksandr Fedotov, first Soviet pilot to reach Mach 3
  • Geoffrey de Havilland, first to fly the Mosquito
  • Alex Henshaw, WWII British test pilot, air racer and author
  • Vladimir Ilyushin, first Soviet pilot to fly the Su-27
  • Alvin M. Johnston, aka "Tex", test pilot for Boeing who famously performed a barrel roll in a 707 prototype.
  • Anatoly Kvochur, Soviet/Russian test pilot known for aerobatics in Su-27 and MiG-29
  • Léon Lemartin, world's first professional test pilot, under contract to Louis Blériot 08/20/1910
  • Tony LeVier, chief engineering test pilot at Lockheed Corporation
  • Viktor Pugachev, first public performer of the Cobra maneuver
  • Steven M. Rainey, commander of 411th Flight Test Squadron and first pilot to fly cross-country in the F-22 Raptor
  • Hanna Reitsch, WWII German aviator and test pilot
  • Svetlana Savitskaya, Soviet/Russian test pilot, cosmonaut and politician
  • 'Mutt' Summers, first to fly the Supermarine Spitfire
  • Brian Trubshaw, first British pilot to fly the Concorde
  • André Turcat, French test pilot and first to fly the Concorde
  • Pavel Vlasov, Soviet/Russian test pilot known for aerobatics in MiG-29OVT
  • Igor Volk, Soviet/Russian test pilot and lead cosmonaut in the Buran programme
  • Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break the sound barrier in level flight

See also

  • List of aerospace flight test centres
  • The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Hallion, Richard P.Test Pilots: Frontiersmen of Flight. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1988.
  • Warsitz, Lutz: THE FIRST JET PILOT – The Story of German Test Pilot Erich Warsitz, Pen and Sword Books Ltd., England, 2009,
  • The Society of Experimental Test Pilots
  • Society of Flight Test Engineers
  • Wilson, George C. Flying the edge: the making of Navy test pilots . Naval Institute Press, 1992. .
  • Memorial website for test pilots who died in flying accidents in the UK
  • Flight list of display and test pilots at 1957 Farnborough air show
  • Website on Erich Warsitz (world's first jet pilot)