Page 73 - Air Forces Monthly - September 2017

operational problems speedily, often during
wartime, and ensures IAF personnel are
involved in every relevant project, from the
drawing board until it becomes operational.
The unit’s experimental section was
originally located at Palmachim, with flight
operations and maintenance sections at Tel
Nof. But runway length at the former limited
the scope of test flying and IAF commanders
wanted all elements based at the same
location, so in August 1978 the team moved
to Tel Nof, where it has remained ever since.
The Center’s motto is ‘First ones in an
uncharted land’, and its personnel see MiG-21 defection
themselves as pioneers: theirs is the IAF
only unit in the IAF officially qualified for On August 16, 1966 an Iraqi MiG-21F-13, After landing at Hatzor the MiG went to the
testing and evaluating airborne equipment, representing the cutting edge of the Arab IAF for evaluation, test pilot Danny Shapira
including fighters, transport aircraft and air forces at that time, landed at Hatzor fl ying various scenarios and simulated
helicopters as well as bombs, missiles and in Israel, fl own by defector Munir Redfa. combat manoeuvres against Israeli combat
other special ordnance or payloads. The fi ghter had been escorted by a pair of aces. The results were distributed to the
The facility has recently been evaluating Mirage IIIs fl own by the CO and deputy of rest of the IAF’s aircrews who made good use
UAVs prior to service entry. Other day-to- the IAF’s 119 ‘Bat’ Squadron. of them in the 1967 Six-Day War.
day work includes testing avionics updates Now famous in the history of espionage, Israel was the fi rst Western country to
and hardware upgrades for in-service aircraft. the operation to capture a MiG-21 was get its hands on a MiG-21. In 1968, the jet
In fact, nothing enters IAF service without carried out by Mossad, Israel’s national was lent to the USAF – which designated it
first coming under the inspection of the intelligence agency, and known as as the YF-110 – for tests in Nevada. Some
Center’s test pilots and flight engineers. Operation Diamond – or Operation Blue sources have since suggested its transfer
Bird within the IAF.
led the US to lift its arms embargo on Israel.
Test flying exposes equipment to extreme
conditions, and sorties are regularly flown
at 35,000 to 40,000ft. Pilots and onboard
flight engineers are highly experienced, each
with thousands of operational flight hours,
and all ranked at least as high as major.
Aircrew undergo one of two different
qualification courses in the US. Pilots attend
the US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS)
at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave
Desert, California, which trains experimental
test pilots, flight test engineers and flight
test navigators to carry out evaluations
of new aircraft and weapon systems.
Engineers meanwhile train at the National
Test Pilot School (NTPS), the only such
civilian organisation in the US, also located
in the Mojave. Each of the two courses lasts
a year, during which cadets are exposed
to dozens of different aircraft types.
The first two examples of each IAF platform
are usually first allocated to the Flight Test
Center and fully instrumented to meet its
specific test requirements and specifications.
As well as the pilot (or pilots) in the air, each
evaluation also involves two more ground
personnel: the test engineer, responsible for
planning and data gathering with a team of
aeronautics specialists; and the experiment
director, a seasoned test pilot tasked
with timing and co-ordinating
the programme.
While test pilots
elsewhere in the world
tend to serve in their
unit till the end
of their careers,
their Israeli
counterparts
continue
to serve
as combat
pilots in their
‘mother’
squadrons;
in times of
conflict or a

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