Today's version of the school offers pilots at least 140 flying hours in a 48-week course, about 200 hours less than most pilots fly in a year. Engineers and navigators are about 40 percent of each class, and they fly about 90 hours each. Instructors ensure that students repeatedly prepare for and conduct test flights, amassing and reporting the data. That's part of the mystique. Kelly Latimer is chief of the school's performance branch staff, which runs the first four months of academics and flying.
Students share a technical background.
They like to do some of the engineering-type stuff that goes on behind the flying, rather than just the flying itself. No glut of graduates Requirements for graduates exceed the number of students being trained. Since there's no glut of grads, they can pick plum follow-on assignments to lead tests on the newest aircrew helmets, gravity suits, stealthy bombers or other research programs. Some of the airmen will qualify for entrance to the astronaut pilot program. Eileen Collins and Pam Melroy are alumni who helped build the international space station as space shuttle crewmembers.