You Can be a Test Pilot

Did you ever dream of landing the next lunar module? Did you ever wonder what it would be like to hop into Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 and break the sound barrier for the first time?

We need you.

What’s the next barrier to be broken?

Is your expertise analyzing data or creating mathematical models, and you want to do that for NASA?

Do you imagine pushing the envelope? Taking an aircraft or spacecraft to the edge of space? Or maybe your goal is fly an X-plane?

Perhaps, you want to know what kinds of flight tests are even being done–things like the airdrop flight test from a C-17 of the NASA Ares Jumbo Drop Test Vehicle in this photo.

Don’t just imagine these dreams–explore them, because we need you. The aerospace industry needs innovators. The flight test community is looking for the next Neil Armstrong, and that’s what this new column is about, helping you take that next small step.

I want to inform those with questions about how to launch their career, inspire the dreamers, and invest in those who are reaching higher and going farther.

Whatever your aspirations–whether it’s flight test conductor, control room test director, experimental test pilot, statistician, applied mathematician, or aeronautical engineer–there’s a spot on the team for you. As Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronaut, reminds us in his autobiography, there were over 400,000 team members on the Apollo project. And every single one of them left a part of their hearts on the moon.

We need you.