News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office
News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office
News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
THE JOB OF AIR CORPS TEST PILOTS<br />
Much of the d8.Il&erhas been engineered out<br />
of the test pilots' job since 1903 when the<br />
first test pilot, Orville Wright, made the<br />
first successful test flight in the first<br />
airplane.<br />
SO SB¥ the highly trained group of <strong>Air</strong><br />
Corps test pilots at Wright which each year<br />
makes hundreds of test flights in more kinds<br />
of airplanes than are tested by any other<br />
single organization in this country.<br />
Records of the aviation industry through<br />
the years in which the airplane was transformed<br />
from a county fair novelty to a production<br />
article substantiate this viewpoint.<br />
Engines are reliable. Wind tunnels have<br />
brushed countless bugs out of new designs.<br />
Structural testing proves the design strel18th<br />
of experimental military airplanes before<br />
they are flown. Speaking as airmen who have<br />
flown scores of different airplanes in hundreds<br />
of hours of test flights, the test pilots<br />
sB¥ that airplanes have become standardized.<br />
Laborator, engineers do not agree that the<br />
test pilots JOD is as ea~y as falling off<br />
a log and about as dangerous. Quoting a<br />
representative opinion of an aeronautical<br />
engineer -There are only two kinds of airplanes-those<br />
that fly and those that don't.<br />
Engineers. in laboratories and factories,<br />
can only a.evelop an airplane so far and then<br />
it takes a test pilot to prove whether we<br />
were right or wrong.-<br />
To illustrate his point, he cited pertinent<br />
questions surrounding the first flight<br />
of the world's largest airplane the XB-I9,<br />
with Maj. Stanley M. Umstead, t~e <strong>Air</strong> Corps<br />
chief test pilot, at the controls.<br />
-The first question about this new 82-ton<br />
airplane is~ will it fly? We are certain it<br />
will, but Maj. Umstead will have to prove<br />
that we are r Lght , The insurance premium<br />
for the first minute of flight has been<br />
placed at $82.000. Odds Llke that, 13 to 1,<br />
are not quotea. for sure things. OUr figures<br />
show that the XB-19 can be taken out of the<br />
comparatively small Clov~r Field. But can<br />
itT There is no precedent to go by in this<br />
case. Imagine placing yourself in the position<br />
of test pilot of the XB-19, responsible<br />
for 3-1/4 million dollars worth of experimental<br />
airplane and the lives of the crew<br />
as well as your own.-<br />
Th&t is the WB¥ the job looks to engineers<br />
on the ground and probably to the earthbound<br />
publio. Sitting in the cockpit, absorbed in<br />
his duties it strikes the test pilot as<br />
naive to ~elieve that he executes flight<br />
tests in a perpetua.l state of thrills, dil.nger<br />
and raw courage when he has made hundreds<br />
of such flights as a routine part of<br />
his job.<br />
the development of military aircraft and<br />
equipment Is based on three key factors:<br />
first the flight instructions for each<br />
flight test are prescribed by project officers<br />
and engineers; the flight testing instruments<br />
used are the best obtainable and<br />
the methods of recording the results of<br />
flight tests are standardized; and third,<br />
the test pilots and flight observers are the<br />
product of uniform training.<br />
Under this system engineers have found that<br />
the results are depeIrlable. Flying the same<br />
test in the same airplane, five <strong>Air</strong> Corps<br />
test pilots would get much nearer the same<br />
data than would five outside test pilots chosen<br />
at random.<br />
New test pilots are selected, not by personal<br />
application, but from recommendations<br />
fil tering through the service grapevine from<br />
other pilots. The preferred prospect, who<br />
apparently possesse~ the makings of a good<br />
test pilot, is one who has considerable flying<br />
experience in a variety of single-and<br />
multi-engine military airplanes; who has demonstrated<br />
cool judgment in tight r,pots 'and<br />
who has, in addi tion to the flying skil i common<br />
in all seasoned <strong>Air</strong> Cor:pspilots, an extra<br />
inheren t ablli ty wi th wh tch only a lucky<br />
few are blessed.<br />
Before a new test pilot is permitted to<br />
take regular flight test assignments there<br />
is an intervening -practice- period of from<br />
two to three months. Guided by the Manual<br />
for Test Pilots, he makes flight tests in an<br />
older service a1rplane and records the data<br />
in the same fashion as do regular test pilots<br />
when flying standard performance tests<br />
in new airplanes. Flight engineers compare<br />
the novice1s data with the official performance<br />
data secured on that particula.r type of<br />
airplane when it first went into service.<br />
The new pilot is assigned to regular flight<br />
test work only after he can consistently return<br />
accurate data from any of the many different<br />
kinds of flight tests.<br />
During t~e -practice" period the beginner<br />
becomes intimately familiar wit~ the 17 items<br />
which compose the complete standard performance<br />
t est which is used by the Me.teriel Division<br />
to determine 1trhetheran experimental<br />
airplane meets minimum requirements,or whether<br />
a production airplane comes up to the<br />
performance guaranteed by the manufacturer.<br />
The fundamentals of a performance testinclude<br />
calibration of the ~ir speed meter;<br />
determination of high speeds at various altitudes,<br />
and of cruisine, or operating,<br />
speeds; saw-tooth climbs; check climbs; takeoff<br />
and landing charact erLs tt cs ; eneine cooling<br />
tests; various tests of military equipment,<br />
and pilot's observations.<br />
These techn1.