News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

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