Empire Test Pilots' School

The Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) is a British training school for test pilots and flight test engineers of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England. It was established in 1943, the first of its type. The school moved to RAF Cranfield in October 1945, to Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough in July 1947, before returning to Boscombe Down on 29 January 1968.

Its motto is "Learn to test; test to learn".

ETPS is run by the MoD and defence contractor QinetiQ under a long-term agreement.

In 1943, Air Marshal Sir Ralph Sorley formed the "Test Pilots' Training Flight" at RAF Boscombe Down after many pilots died testing the many new aircraft introduced during the Second World War.

On 21 June 1943, the unit became the Test Pilots' School within the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down. The school was "to provide suitably trained pilots for testing duties in aeronautical research and development establishments within the service and the industry". It graduated one group of students, the Number 1 Course, which began in the summer of 1943 and formally ended on 29 February 1944, before the school's name was changed to the "Empire Test Pilots' School" (ETPS) on 28 July 1944.

The first training course, held by the Commandant, Wing Commander Samuel "Sammy" Wroath with G. Maclaren Humphreys, a civilian, as Technical Instructor, was initially attended by 18 pilots, drawn largely from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy but included three civilian attendees (all from the Bristol Aeroplane Company). Five students found the standard of maths required on the course to be too high and left within the first week; the 13 students who completed the first course comprised 11 from the RAF (including one American, Sqn. Ldr. JC Nelson, who was serving with one of the Eagle Squadrons) and two from the FAA. Of those who attended No. 1 Course, five eventually died testing aircraft.

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