AIRCRAFT AND SYSTEMS TESTING ESTABLISHMENT
AIRCRAFT AND SYSTEMS TESTING ESTABLISHMENT In 1972, Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) first started training pilots of the Indian Air Force for production testing. Three years later, senior ASTE officers visited ETPS and studied its training methods. These were eventually used to start a course for experimental test flying in 1976. The IAF Test Pilots School, co-located with ASTE at Bangalore, conducts Experimental Flight Test Course (11 months ) for Test Pilots (TP) and Flight Test Engineers (FTE) from the Air Force, Naval Aviation and Army Aviation. The school is one among the eight recognized test pilots school in the world to impart flight test training. There are two streams for training - Rotary Wing and Fixed Wing. Hence, there are four entry streams - RW TP, RW FTE, FW TP and FW FTE. The FTEs have two sub-streams - FTE and FTE (Avionics). Occasionally, under a special arrangement, engineers from non-military organisations involved with aviat