Air Force Test Pilots School Date Raised : 1973-07-01 Location : Bangalore The Indian Air Force Test Pilots School (IAFTPS) trains flight test crew on both fixed wing as well as rotary wing aircraft. Set up in 1973, it is one of the seven test pilots schools in the world and the only one in Asia. The school commenced with training of production test pilots and expanded to the training of experimental test pilots in 1976 and training of flight test engineers in 1983. Training of rotary wing test crew commenced in 1989. In 2011, the training of test crew on remotely piloted aircraft was commenced. For the flagship Experimental Test Pilot and Flight Test Engineer course, the students follow a rigorous 46-week curriculum. 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 aviation such as DRDO, NAL or HAL also get admitted for the FTE course. As of 2019, 296 Test Pilots and 136 Flight Test Engineers had been trained at the school since 1973. Read Detailed History
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Commanding Officers | |||||
Dates | Rank & Name | Number | Remarks | Location | Photo |
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01 Jul 73 to 01 May 75 | Squadron Leader Joseph Thomas | 6496 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jun 75 to 01 Jan 76 | Squadron Leader Philip Rajkumar | 6748 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Feb 76 to 01 Jun 77 | Wing Commander Palamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran | 4973 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jul 77 to 01 Oct 79 | Wing Commander Ved Prakash Kala | 6340 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
21 Jan 80 to 17 Sep 81 | Wing Commander Philip Rajkumar | 6748 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
18 Sep 81 to 01 Sep 82 | Wing Commander Ravish Malhotra | 7673 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jan 83 to 01 Oct 83 | Wing Commander Pradeep Kumar Yadav | 9042 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Oct 83 to 01 Sep 84 | Wing Commander Philip Rajkumar | 6748 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Sep 84 to 01 Feb 85 | Wing Commander Pradeep Kumar Yadav | 9042 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Feb 85 to 01 Aug 85 | Squadron Leader Parvez Hamilton Khokhar | 11860 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Sep 85 to 01 Dec 85 | Wing Commander Parvez Hamilton Khokhar | 11860 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Dec 85 to 01 Mar 86 | Squadron Leader Rajib Kumar Chakravorty | 12503 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Aug 86 to 01 Aug 88 | Group Captain Ravish Malhotra | 7673 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Aug 88 to 01 Jan 91 | Group Captain Pradeep Kumar Yadav | 9042 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jan 91 to 01 Dec 92 | Group Captain Pramod Kumar Mehra | 11581 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Dec 92 to 01 Dec 93 | Group Captain Ajit Keshav Agtey | 12188 GD(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Dec 93 to 01 Jan 97 | Group Captain Gopal Ranjit Mohan | 12926 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 May 97 to 01 Nov 99 | Group Captain Ravi Kant Sharma | 14088 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Nov 99 to 01 May 00 | Wing Commander Tapan Kumar Chatterjee | 14687 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jun 00 to 01 Jun 03 | Group Captain Tapan Kumar Chatterjee | 14687 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jul 03 to 01 Jun 05 | Group Captain Ravinder Kumar Dhir | 15678 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jun 05 to 01 Nov 06 | Group Captain Ganesh Chand | 16214 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Dec 06 to 01 Aug 08 | Group Captain Balabhadra Radha Krishna | 17326 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Aug 08 to 01 Apr 11 | Group Captain Shridher Kishore Mohlah | 18259 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Apr 11 to 01 Sep 13 | Group Captain Sanjai Chauhan | 20466 F(P) | OC | Bangalore | |
01 Jul 14 to 01 May 15 | Group Captain Satya Prakesh Srivastava | 22695 F(P) | OC | Bangalore |