Edwards AFB News

TPS celebrates 70 years with commemorative painting

  • Published
  • By Rebecca Amber
  • Staff writer
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School will reach its 70th anniversary this August, but the celebration has already begun. To coincide with the graduation of Class 13B, the school invited aviation artist and author Mike Machat to unveil his 70th anniversary painting June 13 in the school's Scobee Auditorium.

After a year of research and three weeks on the easel, Machat unveiled "TPS Generations" featuring 18 different aircraft on eight distinct environments or backgrounds. The painting's key features, the NF-16D VISTA and Howland Owl patch from 1944, walk the viewer from the school's start to today.

The VISTA is followed by a trail of aircraft as it crosses over the school's current patch. In front of the VISTA, binary code represents the role of cyber warfare in the Air Force. Below that, the Global Hawk and Predator show the use of unmanned autonomous vehicles, and above, the X-51 represents supersonic flight.

If a viewer looks closely, they can spot some of the more detailed aspects of the painting. The KC-135 for instance, is the only aircraft, other than the VISTA, painted with an actual tail number. The pilots in the VISTA represent Col. Lars Hoffman, TPS commandant, in an Air Force green flight suit, and Bill Gray in a tan flight suit to pay tribute to the civilian aspect of the TPS staff. The VISTA is painted with seven diamond shockwaves to represent seven decades of the school.

"I've done more than 30 images of Edwards spanning from the 40s to today and I've never painted the middle runway in the background of any painting until this one. It represents the base the way it is today and it's a view that's very unusual because we're looking west towards the Tehachapi Mountains," said Machat. "I've told the Edwards story so many different ways and literally from 1942, but this is the first time we've told the story up to right now, so it's really one of my favorites."

Following the unveiling, former TPS commandants Terry Luallen and James Doolittle III participated in a panel discussion with current TPS commandant Hoffman, answering questions about TPS past and present. Graduation for Class 13B was in the afternoon, and the following day TPS held its first annual alumni golf tournament.