U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School is the Air Force's advanced flight training school that trains experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to carry out tests and evaluations of new aerospace weapon systems and also other aircraft of the U.S. Air Force. This school was established on 9 September 1944 as the Flight Test Training Unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio. To take advantage of the uncongested skies, usually superb flying weather, and the lack of developed zones in the event of crashing, the test pilot school was officially moved to its present location at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of Southern California on 4 February 1951.
U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
Packard-LePere Lusac 11 Biplane over McCook Field
Test Pilot School Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star
Buzz Aldrin July 1971 – February 1972
A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.
Léon Lemartin, the world's first professional test pilot, under contract to Louis Blériot in c. 1910
Jimmy Doolittle in 1928 with his Curtiss R3C-2, around the time he pioneered blind flying
Chuck Yeager and the Bell X-1, first test pilot to break the sound barrier at Mach 1 in 1947
Neil Armstrong and the North American X-15 after a research test flight in 1960