Group Aims To Inspire Profession’s Next Generation

ANN’s Rex Alexander spoke with Jim Gibson of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots regarding the group’s advocacy activities at Sun ‘N Fun 2025. Gibson also happens to be a test pilot with the FAA.

The Society is an all-volunteer group who were present at the Aerospace Center for Excellence’s youth activities building to promote STEM education, aimed at stimulating interest in aviation among young people in the hope of attracting the next generation into the test pilot field.

Gibson said there’s a lot of good info about the Society at its website, setp.org, where people can learn about what it’s like to be a test pilot as well as the group’s chapters around the world.

Rex asked about the booths the Society had set up and Gibson said the most basic thing they’re doing is teaching the kids how to build paper airplanes and why they work the way they do.

They also talk with them about how their job as a test pilot is to evaluate certain characteristics of the aircraft.

For example, one characteristic they talk about is accuracy – they take the paper airplane and try to fly it through a hula hoop. By doing that they can see what it’s like to be a test pilot to evaluate whether the aircraft worked the way it was supposed to and did it meet the regulations?

If the airplane doesn’t go through the hoop, the pilots show them how to manipulate the shape of the paper to make it fly the way they want it to.

The whole idea is that they’re trying to create a spark that stimulates their interest so that perhaps down the road they’ll join a club or an after-school activity, that eventually leads to pursuing this kind of work.

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