Seven graduates of the test school in Zhukovsky joined the ranks of highly professional aviatorsThe systemic crisis that struck the domestic aviation at the turn of the century has been partially overcome.
Among the successes of the aircraft builders of the new Russia is the program of the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter, rightfully among the most advanced winged machines in the world. It uses advanced structural materials, digital systems, software, provides modes of super maneuverability, supersonic cruising flight without the use of afterburner, placement of weapons inside the airframe.
Specialists of the Gromov Flight Research Institute (LII) made a significant contribution to the creation and development of the Su-57 and its systems. Test pilots, graduates of the famous Fedotov Test Pilots School (SHL) took an active part in the work. Recently, this unique educational institution, one of two schools that train test pilots, test navigators and leading engineers in flight tests of aviation equipment in Russia (and earlier in the USSR), turned 75 years old.
The key event of the anniversary was the publication of a documentary book about a unique educational institution with complete lists of all graduates for the entire existence of the school, with biographies of all the school heads and the most famous of its pupils. Managers and employees of the School, graduates of different years, honored guests gathered on October 21 at the Zhukovsky House of Culture. It was noted at the meeting that for 75 years of existence, 811 pilots who completed a full course of training were released from the walls of the institution. Among the graduates were Heroes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, Honored test pilots and test navigators of the USSR and the Russian Federation, cosmonauts of the USSR. More than 11 thousand aviation specialists of various profiles have been trained in advanced training courses.
Graduates were the first to take to the sky and gave a start in life to such high-class weapons as An-22, An-124, Il-80, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-29, MiG-31, Su-15, Su-24, Su-25, Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-34, Tu-22M3, Tu-160, Yak-38 and Yak-130, Ka-27, Ka-29, Ka-50, Mi-14, Mi-26 and Mi-28 helicopters. Many of them are still in service.
Effective operation and development of the domestic aviation industry with access to leading positions in the global aviation market are impossible without experimental aviation. And its activities should be provided by the personnel of test specialists.
Currently, the School of Test Pilots of the Gromov LII is the only educational institution in Russia that performs the state function of training experimental aviation personnel for enterprises and organizations of the aviation industry that create new domestic civil and military aviation equipment.
According to the head of the school in 2013-2020, Honored test Pilot Alexander Krutov, today the educational institution feels acute problems in two directions: the low level of training of pilots entering the study, and the lack of state funding. In Soviet times, the company independently selected pilots for training in the specialty "tester". Moreover, the selection was tough – the applicant had to have excellent piloting skills and at the same time be no older than 28 years old (in exceptional cases, a 30-year-old pilot was allowed). Now the company's management is forced to accept those candidates who are sent by one or another aircraft manufacturing company without a competition.
Among the applicants, the vast majority are candidates whose age exceeds 40, and sometimes 50 years. This is due to the fact that the training is funded not from the state budget, but at the expense of the customer company. Here are some numbers. Studying at the university costs 6-7 million rubles. For design bureaus, the figure increases to 20 million rubles, because the test pilot of the Design Bureau is trained on five aircraft of different types.
Many aircraft in the fleet are nearing the end of their service life, which affects the level of training of pilots. If during the Soviet Union students went to master up to 15 types of aircraft, today it is three times less.
Foreign analogues were financed from the budgets of their states. These are the American schools of test pilots of the Air Force (Edwards Air Base), and the Navy (Patuxent River Air Base), and the Royal School of Test Pilots of Great Britain, and the French flight school EPNER. A few years ago, China founded its own test pilot school.
According to Evgeny Pushkarsky, General Director of the M.M. Gromov Flight Research Institute JSC, in order to effectively ensure the activities of experimental aviation until 2025, the Company will have to train aviation personnel for testing the latest domestic aircraft (Ka-62, MS-21, Yak-152, Il-96-400, Il-112, IL-114, PAK DA, etc.), for presentation and acceptance flight tests of serial aircraft planned for production, for flight tests (overflights) of operated state and civil aviation aircraft after factory repairs, as well as for advanced flight studies.
However, the rate of graduation of listeners has not kept pace with the needs. Today, about 200 test pilots work in the Russian aviation industry. At the same time, 60% of them are over 50 years old. The situation is similar with engineering personnel: 70% of them are over 50 years old. Taking into account the planned indicators of the State Program of the Russian Federation "Development of the aviation industry until 2025", the need for the number of aviation personnel for experimental aviation in the near future should increase by one and a half times.
It is necessary to produce annually at least 20 test pilots, a slightly smaller number of test navigators, up to 100 leading test engineers and almost as many aircraft maintenance engineers and other specialists. In 2022, seven test pilots were trained. If we do not urgently increase the output of students of the Academy, this will cause a shortage of qualified aviation personnel of the middle age category. Therefore, it is necessary to take urgent measures to improve the training of test pilots and other specialists for experimental aviation in the required volumes.
