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 Aerospace Test Engineering and Leadership.
 
Our staff and students conduct cutting-edge test research alongside government, academic, and industry partners in areas such as aerospace autonomy, data-driven aerospace test, multi-domain kill chains, and advanced test infrastructure. 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 in the mold of Jimmy Doolittle."
 
The TPS ethos is "credible, adaptable, warfighter-focused."

The United States Air Force Test Pilot School ensures our nation’s warfighters retain a technological advantage to meet evolving strategic challenges. TPS graduates must be both critical thinkers and highly adaptive, developing critical capabilities through testing and evaluation without a standard solution to any complex challenge. Graduates of the school lead the test community from their first assignments and beyond, impacting the entire global aerospace landscape. 

The school screens for candidates with demonstrated operational and engineering excellence, critical thinking, and an innovative spirit. In addition, selected students demonstrate clear leadership attributes in everything they do. The curriculum at TPS is custom designed to advance these skills. 

  • Operational & Engineering Excellence- Preparing students for initial flight/space operations and complex mission systems testing. 
  • Leadership- teaching students for test-unique challenges, forming cohesive teams from diverse stakeholders and developing overall test culture. 
  • Critical Thinking- Exposure to strategic, warfighting, and modern acquisition contexts for development of context-appropriate test strategies. 
  • Innovation- Continuous exposure to emerging technologies and data science such as machine learning and data analytics. 

Graduate Outcomes

TESTER

  • Synthesize test fundamentals, domain-specific knowledge, and test skill sets to decompose requirements of a warfighting system; develop test objectives; assess and mitigate risk; and develop an effective, efficient, secure and safe test plan.
  • Execute effective, efficient, secure and safe test; collect required data; deliberately accept risk; and adapt to a dynamic test environment.
  • Analyze and evaluate test data to formulate conclusions and recommendations based on mission and requirements.
  • Synthesize information from multiple sources and apply knowledge of stakeholder roles, perspectives and priorities to communicate test requirements, plans, risks and results clearly and compellingly.

TEST LEADER

  • Build and direct integrated, multidisciplinary test teams and broad stakeholder coalitions to accomplish test and warfighter objectives.
  • Apply leadership/instructorship frameworks and skills to build and sustain a professional test culture.

CRITICAL THINKER

  • Assess, evaluate and adapt to the strategic, warfighting and technological contexts relevant to the test mission.

TEST INNOVATOR

  • Research and enable new ideas, methods and tech to accelerate test and delivery of warfighting capabilities.
  • Apply data science principles, test foundations and domain knowledge in analyzing large test datasets and testing data-driven systems.

 

Staff & Faculty Goals

Unified Community

  • Build and sustain a culture of inclusive dialogue about the identity and future of the school.
  • Analyze, fairly distribute and report on the school workload annually.
  • Actively recruit highly talented military and civilian members to join the TPS Staff.

Deliberate Development

  • Develop deliberately via leadership, training, skills-based programs, academic degrees, professional conferences, fellowships, research opportunities and exchange assignments

Educational Excellence

  • Apply fundamentals of curriculum design; fundamentals of classroom and event instruction; and management of curriculum administration.
  • Sustain a culture of continuing education; self- and peer evaluations in classrooms and events; and deliberate mentorship of junior instructors.
  • Regularly integrate with test units to appraise the evolving test mission and make time each year to modernize the curriculum accordingly.

 

Research Goals

Novel Tools, Techniques and Frameworks

  • Build and sustain partnerships to appraise and address emerging test challenges.
  • Research and develop novel test techniques, planning frameworks and tools for emerging test challenges.

For the Community

  • Report on and promulgate novel test solutions to the test community.

For the Staff

  • Develop and sustain research expertise via deliberate advanced academic degree topic selection, staff development and talent recruitment.

For the Curriculum

  • Integrate novel test techniques, planning frameworks and tools into the curriculum to prepare students for emerging test challenges.

 

Strategic Plan

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