The thing that you have to understand, is that test flying is in small measure about flying ability, but mostly about technical understanding and ability. The 1-year ETPS course probably contains about 60 hours of flying, but 14 hours a day times 7 days a week or study for 11 months.
Assuming that you don't have a major government behind you, the right starting point is probably a good technical degree, probably in aeronautical engineering (with your physics BSc I'd look perhaps at an aeronautical MSc at somewhere like Cranfield or Embry-Riddle), plus a CPL. You then need to be working somewhere that test flying is going on to start gaining the understanding and experience of how test flying works. It is then, anywhere but the military, a slow progression up to the point where the senior test pilots and FTEs are convinced that you have the understanding and ability to tackle minor tasks or work as an assistant to an experienced TP/FTE, and hence upwards. It's slow and unprofitable, but incredibly interesting. Some organisations formalise what I've just described, most don't, but the basic principles don't really change regardless.
Recceguy is wrong so far as the UK and Australia at-least are concerned, fighter pilots are trained to flight test fighters, and truckie pilots are trained to flight test trucks. In many ways truckies or ex-QFIs make better TPs because they are much better team operators - the necessary self dependence of a single seat pilot can get in the way in a test programme which is very necessarily a team effort. It may be that the US still has a fast-jet hangup on test flying, and I know that the French tend to also, but that's dieing out. However he is quite right that a high hour airline pilot is almost completely useless as a TP, military transport pilots are a very different beast who have done a great deal more genuine handling flying.
G
N.B. I know that their website is still there, but I think that ITPS have ceased trading.
[ 31 January 2002: Message edited by: Genghis the Engineer ]
[ 31 January 2002: Message edited by: Genghis the Engineer ]</p>