Originally Posted by
OvertHawk
Presumably the reason that most test pilots in the US (and elsewhere) are from a military background is that the test pilot courses are so hugely expensive that it tends to be only the military that can run / afford them?
Therefore, I suspect that manufacturers employ mostly ex military test pilots because there are very few test pilots out there who are not from the services.
I stand to be corrected.
OH
Almost certainly true in both the fixed and rotary wing worlds. I recently heard an estimate of a little under US$1m to put a pilot through Test Pilot School. Virtually nobody will ever self fund through that, nor are many companies going to pay that if they can employ ex-military TPs.
There are pure civilian TPs, who have normally graduated from the Flight Test Engineer roles, but that's a relatively rare route and tends to be the more technically specialist TPs - the "big job" TPs: first flights, high risk testing, weapons testing - they are almost always ex-military, because of the specific training delivered at the TP schools.
G