Test pilots

Wings of Gold, Spring 2003 by Miller, Jerry

Wings of Gold Feature

The term "test pilot" usually evokes images of macho men exhibiting courage and daring, be it Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier or the late Alan Shepard doing loops around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Test pilots have been a major factor in the success of aviation, simply because they provide answers to two questions. What works - and what doesn't work?

One of the most challenging aspects of the test pilot business has been that associated with aircraft carriers. Designing, producing, and operating aircraft that will meet the demands for carrier operations have relied a great deal on test pilots. Their reactions and reports about a particular vehicle are often the determining factor in the future of that vehicle. The infamousr F-111B Navy interceptor went down the drain mainly because of the reaction of the test pilots that evaluated the airplane. The loss of one of Grumman Aircraft's leading pilots in an early test was not enough to kill the airplane, but subsequent reports from follow on tests doomed the aircraft to the scrap heap. In the opposite vein, the recent glowing test pilot reports on the new joint strike/fighter (JSF) concept demonstrator have provided much of the incentive for funding the continued development of that airplane.

Many of the unique tests for carrier aviation have been conducted at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland. For example, RADM "Whitey" Feightner, USN (Ret.) tested the famed large land based P2V ASW aircraft for carrier landings as part of the Navy's early efforts to develop a realistic capability to deliver nuclear weapons from aircraft carriers. After successful practice landings at the test site,using a tialhook-configured airplane, Feightner was ready to "take it aboard." However, a senior pilot in the squadron who would be assigned the nuclear weapon delivery misson, took his turn at an arrested landing. After several touch and gos, he extended the hook for a trap. Unfortunately, he failed to flare the plane a bit after cutting power. The plane caught the arresting wire but was high. It crashed with "rivets everywhere." The point is, although test pilots might have been able to take the P2V aboard ship, it was decided the risk was too great for those not at the test pilot level of competence. The concept was terminated.

Another spectacular flight occurred in the late 194Os at Patuxent River when the late ADM John Hyland, then a young test pilot, was demonstrating the impact that jet aviation was going to have on both the offensive and defensive elements of naval warfare. While making a high-speed low-level pass in front of a gallery of leaders from Washington D.C., Hyland's aircraft struck a large bird - an osprey. The impact sheared off much of the plane's vertical stabilizer. Using his high speed for stability, Hyland took the plane to altitude. While checking the plane's landing abilities, it went into a spin and Hyland had to bail out. This was before the days of ejection seats. He landed in the Patuxent River, was picked up by an amphibian airplane, returned to shore, went to the dispensary for a check-up and then returned to the visitors gallery where the master of ceremonies handed him a microphone and asked him to explain the test that the visitors had just observed. His actions may have been the origination of the term "cool." Not long after, most military jet aircraft were equipped with ejection seats.

Test pilots from Patuxent River were a key element in the adoption of the angled deck for carriers as they made landing and take off tests on the specially modified flight deck on the USS Antietam in the early 1950s. Further, a team of test pilots from Patuxent River conducted catapult takeoffs alongside a pier at the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard from a British carrier equipped with the new steam catapult. Those tests resulted in the installation of the steam catapult in the new USS Forrestal. The favorable endorsement by the test pilots was sufficient for the Navy to make the major decision to incorporate that British innovation into U.S. carrier aviation.

One of the earliest test pilots for Naval Aviation, particularly for aircraft operating from carriers, was James Blackstone (Jimmie) Taylor, Jr. He was born in 1897 and learned to fly in 1914 when he was 17 years of age. When the U.S. entered WWI, he left Princeton University and joined the Navy, winning his wings as Naval Aviator No. 437. He served briefly as an instructor in floatplanes and then was assigned to experimental flight testing. He soon became "America's premier test pilot." In 1918 he flew the initial flight of the Navy's first monoplane. The following year he was one of the first to fly scout planes from platforms built over the gun turrets of battleships. He also was one of the first pilots to test new types of landing and launching gear on the Navy's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley. In 1922 he left the Navy and became a contract test pilot for a number of early aircraft manufacturers. This was a time when test pilots worked closely with the emerging corps of aeronautical engineers, providing answers that now come from wind tunnels and flight simulators.