The U.S. Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California has introduced an innovative tool that significantly reduces the time required to create flight test documents, streamlining the process from weeks to just minutes.
This tool, named the AI Flight Test Assistant (AFTA), was developed by the Air Force Test Center (AFTC). It efficiently generates initial drafts of essential documents such as test plans, hazard analyses, evaluation frameworks, and technical reports, all of which are crucial for the flight testing process.
“The AI Flight Test Assistant is a cloud-based tool that employs generative AI to enhance labor-intensive test and evaluation processes,” explained Jordan Conner, the AFTC AI implementation lead. “Initially, it served merely as a document generator; however, it has evolved into a no-code workflow editor, allowing users to create customized AI-driven automated processes.”
At the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC), a tester successfully created a custom workflow that automated the production of operational test measures. This task, which previously demanded over 20 hours of manual effort, was completed by AFTA in under two hours with less than five minutes of initial input from a human user.
In another case, a member of the 96th Test Wing utilized AFTA’s workflow editor to develop a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) document generator in less than 10 minutes. The tool is now capable of producing a first draft of a ROM document in under a minute, a task that once required a team of several individuals working for hours.
More than 800 users from the Department of the Air Force are currently experimenting with AFTA, with over 30 organizations developing their own custom workflows. The platform received top rankings in a poll conducted at this year’s AFOTEC AI Technology Showcase among government attendees.
Unlike conversational AI tools such as GenAI.mil, AFTA adheres to predefined processes and policies that guarantee consistent and repeatable results, which engineers subsequently review and refine before the documents advance in the process.
Maj. Gen. Scott Cain, the commander of the Air Force Test Center, emphasized the importance of speeding up testing to maintain an operational advantage.
“Speed matters,” Cain stated. “Our ability to test, learn, and adapt more quickly than potential adversaries is essential for delivering credible capabilities to our warfighters. Tools that enable our engineers to work faster while upholding rigorous testing standards are vital to this mission.”
“AI can provide a strong initial draft,” Conner added. “However, human oversight remains crucial. Engineers are required to review, edit, and validate every document before it can progress, just as they would without AI assistance.”
