Empire Test Pilots' School - History

History

In 1943, Air Marshal Sir Ralph Sorley formed the "Test Pilots' Training Flight" at MoD Boscombe Down after many pilots died testing the many new aircraft introduced during World War II.

On 21 June 1943, the unit became the Test Pilots' School within the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down. The school was "to provide suitably trained pilots for testing duties in aeronautical research and development establishments within the service and the industry". It graduated one group of students, the Number 1 Course, which began in the summer of 1943 and formally ended on 29 February 1944, before the school's name was changed to the "Empire Test Pilots' School" (ETPS) on 28 July 1944.

The first training course, held by the Commandant, Wing Commander S. Wroath with G. Maclaren Humphreys, a civilian, as Technical Instructor, was initially attended by 18 pilots, drawn largely from the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy but included three civilian attendees (all from the Bristol Aeroplane Company). Five students found the standard of maths required on the course to be too high and left within the first week; the 13 students who completed the first course comprised 11 from the RAF (including one American, Sqn. Ldr. J.C. Nelson, who was serving with one of the Eagle Squadrons) and two from the FAA. Of those who attended No. 1 Course, five eventually died testing planes.

Due to the rapid growth of the A&AEE, at Boscombe Down, the school moved to RAF Cranfield in October 1945. On 12 July 1947, it was attached to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, where it remained for almost 21 years, flying a wide variety of aircraft types, before returning to Boscombe Down on 29 January 1968.

Until 1963, the course catered to both fixed-wing and rotary-wing pilots, with the latter specializing late in the course. In 1963, a separate rotary-wing course was established, followed in 1974 by a course for Flight test engineers. The school also offers a number of short courses "to meet specific Air Test and Evaluation (AT&E) training needs of the wider flight test community".

In 2001, ETPS was included with those research departments sold off by the Government to Carlyle Group during the formation of QinetiQ. It is now run as a partnership between QinetiQ and the UK MoD.

The Empire Test Pilots' School was the first of its kind, and was soon followed by other similar schools, such as the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California in 1944, the United States Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland in 1945 and the EPNER in France (École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception) in 1946. Other schools in India (Indian Air Force Test Pilot School in Bangalore) and Japan were established in later years. Some of these schools operate exchange programmes, which expand the variety of aircraft the students have available to them for gaining flight test experience.

In addition to such student exchanges, British, French and American schools share access to their aircraft, so that students can experience a wider range of aircraft types during their respective courses.