39 Test pilots

Francesco Agello was an Italian test pilot.

Heinz "Pritzl" Bär was a German Luftwaffe flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. Bär flew more than one thousand combat missions, and fought in the Western, Eastern and Mediterranean theatres. On 18 occasions he survived being shot down, and according to records in the German Federal Archives, he claimed to have shot down 228 enemy aircraft and was credited with 208 aerial victories, 16 of which were in a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.

Sergey Bogdan is the chief test pilot for Sukhoi and Hero of Russia. He routinely performs at international air shows.

Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari is an American test pilot and NASA astronaut. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, MIT, and U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, and has over 2,000 flying hours.

Jean-François André Clervoy is a French engineer and a CNES and ESA astronaut. He is a veteran of three NASA Space Shuttle missions.

Suranjan Das was a pilot in the Indian Airforce. He joined the Royal Indian Air Force during the World War II. He was amongst the first pilots to be sent to Empire Test Pilots School to a test pilot for the Indian Air force. He was a group captain. He commanded the Halwara Air Force Station Base between 1967 and 1969 and was the director of the Aircraft & Armament Testing Group of the Indian Air Force from 1969 until his death. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 1970. He was the son of Sudhi Ranjan Das He died in an air crash while test flying a HAL HF-24 prototype.

Mario de Bernardi (1893–1959) was an Italian World War I fighter pilot, seaplane air racer of the 1920s, and test pilot of early Italian experimental jets.

Squadron Leader John Douglas Derry DFC was a British test pilot who is believed to be the first Briton to have exceeded the speed of sound in flight.

Luis Farell Cubillas was a Mexican Air Force combat pilot during the Revolution of the 1920s. He fought against Adolfo de la Huerta, the Yaqui rebels, General Arnulfo R. Gomez, against the Cristeros and accomplished several bombing and strafing missions against the military coup headed by General José Gonzalo Escobar and the revolt by General Saturnino Cedillo. Farell retired from active service as a Division General while being Sub-Chief of the Mexican Air Force.

Chris Austin Hadfield is a Canadian retired CSA astronaut, engineer, science communicator, singer, and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. The first Canadian to walk in space, Hadfield has flown two Space Shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.

Kelly Latimer is a former combat veteran and retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel. She was the first ever female research pilot to join the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. She works with Virgin Galactic and is due to be the pilot for their first rocket launch in 2020. Latimer flew the T-38, T-34, Lockheed Martin C-141B Starlifter, C-17, 747 Shuttle Carrier aircraft and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 747SP.

Nicole "Duke" Victoria Aunapu Mann is an American test pilot and NASA astronaut. She is an F/A-18 Hornet pilot, and a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Stanford University and the US Naval Test Pilot School. She has over 2,500 flight hours in 25 types of aircraft, 200 carrier landings, and has flown 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mann completed astronaut training in 2015 and was assigned in August 2018 to Boe-CFT, the first crewed test flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner.

Enrico Massi was an Italian aviator. He is considered a pioneer of aviation in El Salvador.

Giuseppe Motta was an Italian World War I fighter pilot and seaplane air racer of the 1920s.

The National Test Pilot School (NTPS) is the only civilian test pilot school in the United States, located in Mojave, California. It is organized as a not-for-profit educational institute under California state law and is governed by a Board of Trustees. NTPS is one of the seven test pilots schools worldwide recognized by the international Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), giving pilot graduates of NTPS instant initial acceptance into their Society. In 2016, NTPS became the first test pilot school in the world to be certified as a Flight Test Authorised Training Organisation (ATO) by the European Aviation Safety Organization (EASA).

Claude Nicollier is the first astronaut from Switzerland. He has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight (STS-46) was in 1992, and his final spaceflight (STS-103) was in 1999. He took part in two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope. During his final spaceflight he participated in a spacewalk, becoming the first European Space Agency astronaut to do so during a Space Shuttle mission. In 2000 he was assigned to the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity Branch, while maintaining a position as Lead ESA Astronaut in Houston. Nicollier retired from ESA in April 2007.

Bolesław Orliński was a Polish aviator, military, sports and test pilot.

Alexey Dmitrievich Perelet was a Soviet pilot who was the principal test pilot for military aircraft prototypes produced by Tupolev during World War II. Perelet was born in the village of Voronki, then part of the Russian Empire and started his test pilot career in 1943, working for the Tupolev aerospace and defense company. He tested and flew the following planes: Tu-4, Tu-10, Tu-16, Tu-77, Tu-82, Tu-85 and Tu-95. He died on 11 May 1953 in a crash while testing the TU-95/1 prototype plane with 2TV-2F engines.

Philippe Perrin is a French test pilot, engineer and former CNES and European Space Agency astronaut.

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rayevskiy was a test pilot for the Russian military. While flying inside Russia and in Belarus, he has achieved 2300 hours of flight time, piloting various aircraft as the Su-27 and the Mig-29, and has over 200 accident-free landings on top of aircraft carriers. Due to his work as a test pilot and of his record, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and test pilot. Along with Melitta von Stauffenberg, she flight tested many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II and received many honors.

Constantin Wladimir Rozanoff, also known as Kostia Rozanoff, - was a French test pilot, Colonel of the French Air Force, and one of the pioneers of jet aviation. He was chief-pilot at Dassault Aviation. He flew 201 types of planes and helicopters, and accumulated 5,000 flying hours, including 3,865 combat hours, and breaking the sound barrier 104 times.

Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, AC is a former Indian Air Force pilot who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on 3 April 1984 with the Soviet Interkosmos programme. He is the only Indian citizen to travel in space, although there have been other astronauts with an Indian background who were not Indian citizens.

Lothar Sieber was a German test pilot who was killed in the first vertical take-off manned rocket flight, in a Bachem Ba 349 "Natter".

Sir Ross Macpherson Smith, was an Australian aviator. He and his brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, were the first pilots to fly from England to Australia, in 1919.

The Society of Experimental Test Pilots is an international organization that seeks to promote air safety and contributes to aeronautical advancement by promoting sound aeronautical design and development; interchanging ideas, thoughts and suggestions of the members, assisting in the professional development of experimental pilots, and providing scholarships and aid to members and the families of deceased members.

Wolfgang Späte was a German Luftwaffe fighter pilot during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. For fighter pilots it was a quantifiable measure of skill and combat success. He is attributed by some, for an early, 1938 version of the speed to fly theory, usually attributed to Paul MacCready. Already a talented glider pilot before the war, he went on to become one of the Luftwaffe's foremost test pilots.

Sergente Mario Stoppani was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories. His valor earned him two Silver awards of the Medal for Military Valor and the Russian Cross of St. George during the World War I.

Pierre Émile Taddéoli was a Swiss aviation pioneer. He was active as a pilot, instructor, test pilot, and also the probably most prominent pioneer using seaplanes in Switzerland. Taddéoli received the pilot's brevet number 2 issued in Switzerland on October 10, 1910.

A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.

Major André Édouard Turcat was a French Air Force pilot and test pilot celebrated for flying the first prototype of Concorde for its maiden flight.

Erich Warsitz was a German test pilot of the 1930s. He held the rank of Flight-Captain in the Luftwaffe and was selected by the Reich Air Ministry as chief test pilot at Peenemünde West. He is remembered as the first person to fly an aircraft under liquid-fueled rocket power, the Heinkel He 176, on June 20, 1939 and also the first to fly an aircraft under turbojet power, the Heinkel He 178, on August 27 the same year.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, was an English Royal Air Force air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for a similar invention; however, this was technically unfeasible at the time. Whittle's jet engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Hans von Ohain who was the designer of the first operational turbojet engine.

Yu Zhenwu is a retired pilot and general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). As one of China's first test pilots, he conducted the 1958 maiden flight of the Shenyang JJ-1, China's first indigenously developed jet aircraft. He later served as commander of the Guangzhou Military Region Air Force from 1982 to 1985, deputy commander of the PLAAF from 1985 to 1994, and commander of the PLAAF from 1994 to 1996.

Bernard Ziegler is the former Airbus senior vice president for engineering. He is well known for his evangelical zeal for the application of the fly-by-wire system in the Airbuses. He is the son of the former Airbus CEO, Henri Ziegler.

Henri Ziegler CVO, CBE was one of the founders of Airbus and its first president.

Olav Zipser is a highly accomplished, multiple-time world champion, trainer of multiple world champions, Sports Emmy Award-winning, pioneering skydiver.

Bronisław Żurakowski was a Polish engineer, aeroplane constructor, and glider test pilot.

Janusz Żurakowski was a Polish fighter and test pilot. At various times in his life he lived and worked in Poland, the United Kingdom, and Canada.