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The NTPS employs a full time professional staff.  The full time staff is complimented by ten (10) part time academic and flight instructors.  All are highly experienced.  

The National Test Pilot School (NTPS) complex is located at Mojave Airport in California, very close to Edwards, AFB.  Mojave airport houses many civilian flight test organizations and has been designated the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center .

The National Test Pilot School has in place a joint use agreement between the USAF and the USN to use the airspace and ranges of R2515 and the MOA 2508 on a non-interference basis.  Essentially NTPS is treated as an operating squadron at Edwards AFB.

The NTPS complex currently consists of six buildings.  The school hangar and classroom facility totals 42,400 square feet, two maintenance hangars for jet aircraft repair, each 13,600 square feet and a helicopter and propeller aircraft maintenance facility of 15,000 square feet.  In addition to the buildings mentioned above, additional storage areas totaling 19,600 square feet for aircraft parts is leased from Mojave airport.

The school building has six classrooms, numerous faculty offices, student work areas, briefing rooms, two lounges, conference rooms, library, simulator rooms, multiple computer-based data analysis facilities, telemetry ground station, operations room and administrative sections, showers, lockers and a racquetball court.

The school has its own variable stability ground based simulator.  The basic model for the variable stability simulator is the F-16 and the instructor has the ability to change the stability and control derivatives, feed back loops, and transport delay times, etc., to change the flying characteristics of the model.  This VSS is used at NTPS to augment the Dynamics and closed loop flying qualities courses and to model and predict the flying qualities of many types of aircraft.

Many of the texts utilized during NTPS courses are produced and published by NTPS ensuring that the correct depth of information is immediately available.  Any other information required is presented in standard texts available from commercial sources.  In addition, tutorial material is available for use as a self-paced study guide for students.

Students receive 565 academic hours of instruction:

Prerequisite subjects	45
Performance	68
Flying Qualities	126
Systems	218
Loads and Stores	70
Management	38

Students sit for 20 exams (both written and comprehensive orals).

Students present 31 reports (both written and oral)

Each student is given an individual Final Project

The academic and instructional standards of the school are excellent.  This is due to experienced instructors, academics taught with the goal of practical application, low staff to student ratios and high student expectations.  The grading standards of N.T.P.S. are well established and each student must get a satisfactory grade or better (75% minimum) to pass each examination, oral and written report

In addition to the engineering simulator resident at the NTPS, high fidelity simulators are leased to support the P&FQ and Modeling and Simulation portions of the curriculum.  These include Gulfstream &  Cessna Citation simulators.  The LearJet variable stability aircraft is leased from Calspan for the NTPS Fixed Wing pilots and engineers.  The rotary wing pilots and engineers fly the National Research Council (NRC) variable stability Bell 205 aircraft in Ottawa Canada.

The National Test Pilot School operates a total of thirty-four (34) aircraft, many of which are instrumented for flight test training.  The aircraft types include two business jets, five military jet trainers, large and medium turbo-prop multi-engine transports, one turbo-prop military trainer, three piston powered military trainer aircraft, , two light twin piston engine aircraft, seven single engine aircraft and one glider.  The rotary wing fleet consists of one UH-1N, two OH-58C, one H-500, one S-55, and two BO-105 helicopters.

Each pilot typically flies 110 hours in at least 25 types of aircraft in the one year professional course.  Each engineer flies about 100 hours in 20 types of aircraft.  

The National Test Pilot School through its academic and research unit, the National Flight Test Institute, has been extended approval to award the Master of Science in Flight Test Engineering and the Master of Science in Flight Test and Evaluation.  Test pilots and flight test engineers who have the necessary academic background and who satisfactorily complete the yearlong Professional Course, are eligible to receive this degree.

The Master of Science and Flight Test Engineering is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).

The breadth and depth of flight test training offered at the National Test Pilot School is unique, covering civil and military certification, avionics systems flight testing, as well as the more classical subjects of stability and control and performance.

NTPS has made a long term investment in school facilities, a modern curriculum, diverse aircraft, and highly experienced staff to earn each of our students.

The NTPS professional course is at least comparable, and in many instances significantly better than the military test pilot schools at less than half the cost.