United States Air Force Test Pilot School

Since 1944, TPS has formed thousands of test leaders including hundreds of astronauts, general officers, first flight pilots, senior military and industry leaders, and international graduates from over 20 countries. Our staff include preeminent experts with extensive experience in air and space test. TPS offers two year-long programs - the Flight Test Course and the Space Test Course - and one 6-week Enlisted Test Course. TPS administers a Master of Science degree in Test Engineering and oversees the Air Force's most complex air operation encompassing 5,000 flight hours across over 30 aircraft types annually, as well as one of the Space Force's most complex space operation including engagement with over 15 space systems annually. Our hands-on education includes instructional and research flights in F-16s, T-38s, C-12s, A-29s, and a wide range of fighter, bomber, transportation, experimental, vintage, aerobatic, and civil aircraft, as well as live flights of on-orbit satellites and component-level labs and simulations. Our staff and students conduct cutting-edge test research alongside government, academic, and industry partners in areas such as aerospace autonomy, machine learning to accelerate developmental test, multidomain killwebs, and advanced sensors. TPS is home to the X-62A, the world's first autonomous fighter testbed. The TPS mission is to "Create test leaders, develop school staff and conduct test research to accelerate multidomain capabilities to the warfighter." The TPS vision is "Testers, Leaders, Thinkers and Innovators." The TPS exemplars are test luminaries General Jimmy Doolittle for the Flight Test Course, General Bernard Schriever for the Space Test Course, and Colonel/MSgt Ulysses Nero for the Enlisted Test Course. The TPS ethos is "Credible, Adaptable, Warfighter-Focused."