RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, TEST AND EVALUATION

The RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, TEST AND EVALUATION (RDT&E) process can involve both ground based and in-flight activity. The Patuxent River Naval Air  Museum vividly depicts this scientific and engineering process and the equipment necessary to conduct flight test and evaluation. This page depicts the flight test component of RDT&E.

All the hardware artifacts shown on this page are on display at the Museum. For purposes of the test scenario shown 
here, the artifacts selected are historic in nature and are not intended to reflect any singular test or aircraft configuration.
New characteristics of an AIRCRAFT, developed via Research and Development (R&D), must be proven through flight Test and Evaluation (T&E). 

A trained Navy or Marine Corps TEST PILOT, who has graduated from the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, is assigned to fly the test mission. The pilot is teamed with ground controllers and flight test engineers.
           

 

The Test Team plans for, collects and evaluates
TEST DATA