MYSURU: To select the best pilots to fly the advanced aircraft being inducted into the armed forces, the Indian Air Force (IAF) inaugurated the Computerized Pilot Selection System (CPSS) at the No. 2 Air Force Selection Board here on Friday. It will replace the pilot aptitude battery test that was in use for decades. CPSS was conceived by APJ Abdul Kalam, the then scientific adviser to the prime minister in 1997, to develop a better tool for pilot aptitude test in consonance with the advanced IAF aircraft.

It also aims at addressing the alarming rate of flying accidents attributed to pilot error in IAF. After dedicating the new system to the nation, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said CPSS would be introduced in the other IAF selection boards at Dehradun and Varanasi soon. It has been jointly developed by the Defence Institute of Psychological Research and the Air Defence Establishment – premier organisations of the Defence Research and Development Organization.

Describing CPSS as a major step towards ensuring safety of our skies, the IAF chief said, “Only the best of the best can fully utilize the potential of the ultra-modern technology being inducted into IAF to establish it as a power to reckon with in South East Asia.” He said cockpits of the fifth generation fighter planes would place tremendous physical and mental workload on pilots and system operators and only the best will be allowed to occupy these cockpits. CPSS, he said, is a concrete step in the right direction towards meeting these objectives