Society of Experimental
Test Pilots

The Society of Experimental Test Pilots

The Test Pilot is a unique professional, who bears a heavy burden. Inputs from the community are a critical requirement at all stages of the design process of a flight vehicle. Experience has shown that these inputs can make a flight vehicle development program a spectacular success or a dismal failure.

The advent of Artificial Intelligence makes test crew oversight even more crucial, with human expertise stepping in whenever the AI algorithms hallucinate or give a suspect result. Despite highly automated systems on modern flight decks and cockpits that reduce workload while enhancing situational awareness, hull losses continue to occur, and loss of control remains the most worrying cause of hull losses.

Root causes can be traced back to incorrect assumptions made by design teams or malfunctioning of basic sensors, highlighting lack of real-world role related knowledge, or testing, or both. All these areas rely on the domain expertise of the Test Pilot and require the community to step up and provide the necessary inputs to ensure Flight Safety.

The community must bear in mind that their ultimate responsibility is the safety of the end users — the military and civilian pilots who will fly the machines cleared by them.

The Test Pilot community has been a witness to spectacular advances in aviation technology: from propellers to jets; manual to fully automated systems; basic flight controls to Fly by Wire; dial mounted analogue displays to glass cockpit instrumentation with advanced flight management and guidance systems — the list goes on. The Test Pilot community has been a partner in this aerospace revolution, supporting it and providing vital safety oversight at every stage.

To address these issues, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) was set up in 1955 to promote Safety, Communication and Education in the design and flight test of aerospace vehicles and their related systems. SETP aims to maintain a viable professional and international society for all test pilots and aerospace corporations.

The Indian Section of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots was set up in 2021, being aligned with the vision and mission of SETP.