The USNTPS curriculum is 48 weeks long, and a class is convened every January and July. It is a unique educational program of considerable engineering depth and project variety, designed to prepare students to meet the requirements of Navy Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E), Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) activities, and various other Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) activities in all U.S. military services, other U.S. Government agencies, and many foreign nations. Three curriculums provide instruction in academics, flight test preparation, flight test conduct, data collection, data reduction, and test report preparation. The fixed-wing curriculum prepares pilots and engineers to evaluate airplane performance and flying qualities. The rotary-wing curriculum prepares pilots and engineers to evaluate helicopter and airplane performance and flying qualities. Both of these courses include instruction in airborne mission systems testing. The airborne systems curriculum is a comprehensive course in airborne mission system test and evaluation for flight officers and engineers. It also includes aircraft performance and flying qualities instruction.