QinetiQ’s Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) agrees new deal with Gripen.

http://www.gripen.com/en/MediaRelations/News/2006/etps_agrees_new_deal.htm

QinetiQ’s Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) agrees new deal with Gripen

Trainee test pilots at QinetiQ’s world-class Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) are to gain even greater access to flying Sweden’s new generation Gripen fighter.

2006-07-17 | ETPS test pilot students are routinely given access to a wide range of aircraft. The school, which exists to fulfil the UK MOD’s requirement for test pilots, has included Gripen in its test pilot training courses since 1999 and part of the course is spent in Sweden where the students experience Gripen’s advanced cockpit technology and flight characteristics.

Image: Gripen two-seater painted in colours and markings of the UK’s Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS).

ETPS Business Manager, Steve Westwood, said: “Modern aircraft rely on advanced systems for their effectiveness. For this reason, we give our students access to a number of different aircraft. Expanding our use of the Gripen allows us to teach systems integration more effectively and on the latest platforms.”

The planned 2006 training campaigns will mirror the structured approach of the highly successful 2005 campaigns, but will see a 30% increase in student numbers, a 20% increase in flights per student, the training of a third ETPS Instructor Pilot (IP) and the inclusion of Flight Test Engineer students within a refined syllabus.

Each course will contain two training campaigns in May and September and will be undertaken by seven students with three instructor pilots. The instructors undergo a three-week conversion exercise to qualify them on Gripen. Each student will fly Gripen for twelve and a half hours with a complementary course of simulator flying. The most recent campaigns have included students from the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the United States Navy and the French Air Force. Flight operations are undertaken at Saab’s facility in Linköping, Sweden while simulator training is conducted at the Swedish Air Force F7 Wing, Såtenäs, Sweden.

“Saab is delighted that the world’s foremost test pilots’ school has chosen to further expand the training of its students on the Gripen. Saab is a company with a high degree of interest in the art of flight test, so we are very happy to co-operate with such a prestigious flight test school and expose our aircraft to such high-level personnel. We are fully committed to supporting whatever future aspirations the ETPS may have for Gripen”, says Christer Dahlberg, Senior Vice President Marketing at Saab Aerosystems.

The Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) provides the UK MOD with Service pilots for employment as test pilots for acceptance testing duties and for aerodynamics and systems research. The School also trains Flight Test Engineers (FTE) for QinetiQ and both pilots and FTEs from Commonwealth and other friendly nations. Graduate test pilots and FTEs may go on to contribute to Service equipment programmes as combined test team members, procurement managers, operational requirements staff or in the increasingly crucial ‘intelligent customer’ role in liaison with Aerospace contractors.

The School has a wide portfolio of management and practioner short courses designed to maximise the effectiveness of flight test teams. New courses launched this year include a 14 week test pilot and flight test engineer training course designed to support non-envelope expansion acceptance testing and a 4 week aircraft systems flight test course that investigates the latest in aircraft system technologies and associated flight test best practice.