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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – There are more than 54,000 officers in the U.S. Navy, and only 30 active-duty officers are designated as Aerospace Experimental Psychologists (AEP). Lt. Sarah Beadle, a native of Ottumwa, Iowa, is one of them, and she is making a significant impact on the next generation of Naval Aviation.
As one of only 30 AEPs, Lt. Beadle is part of a small but vital community dedicated to ensuring that Naval Aviation remains the best in the world. By bridging the gap between the human mind and the complex machines of modern aviation, she is helping to forge the next generation of pilots, naval flight officers and aerial vehicle pilots and advancing the future of naval air training.
The AEP community grew out of the Aviation Psychology specialty established by Admiral Nimitz on February 7, 941 and AEPs first began receiving Wings of Gold at the completion of their flight training on April 12, 1967.
Today AEPs are research and acquisition specialists and Medical Service Corps officers tasked with a critical mission: To optimize human performance in the flight environment through advancements in Human Systems Integration (HSI), personnel selection, training, safety, and human factors engineering. To this end they promote and help to ensure the safe and effective performance of Navy and Marine Corps personnel in aviation systems.
They provide professional and technical guidance to plan and conduct aviation research, testing the cognitive and behavioral psychological effects of new aviation systems on flight crews, and directly supporting personnel selection and training. They employ their expertise in human factors engineering to lessen the impact of high-stress maneuvers and develop operational support and safety technologies. They are intimately involved in the development of human autonomy teaming capabilities and heavily engaged in efforts to leverage AI / ML solutions to enhance mission effectiveness. They do all of this while completing regular flight time to get direct experience with the Aviators they support.
Beadle is the 164th person to ever hold the AEP designation and she brings a unique blend of academic expertise and firsthand flight experience to her role at Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA).
Prior to joining the Navy, Beadle was working on her PhD in Human Factors at Clemson University, where she met her PhD advisor, Dr. Eric Muth, a former Navy AEP.
“We take quite a bit of pride in our designation number, and I'm number 164, as in the 164th aerospace experimental psychologist, and I believe he (Muth) was 109,” said Beadle.
In preparation for graduation, she began exploring different career paths within the human factors field, including summer internships with big industry primes, working as a faculty member at Clemson University and interning as a civilian research scientist for the Army’s Aeromedical Research Lab.
“When I did that, it highlighted for me the importance of aeromedical research. I like working on a science team, but I prefer being on the flight side and I felt like I couldn't do that in the private sector,” said Beadle.
Her PhD advisor introduced her to the unique opportunity that the Navy offers. Unlike the Army or Air Force, the Navy offered a program where she wouldn't just be studying pilots; she would train alongside them.
“I wanted to do some flight school so I could get to the point that I could speak a common language with aviators and work collaboratively with them,” Beadle explained.
This desire for domain-specific knowledge and direct connection with the warfighter led her to the Navy.
Beadle, like many other AEPs, did not start her journey in the cockpit, it started at the five-week Officer Development School (ODS) in Newport, Rhode Island. ODS is an initial training program for individuals who have already received a direct commission into the Navy, typically Staff Corps officers (e.g. doctors, nurses, lawyers, and chaplains) who are already highly skilled professionals in their field.
From there, she reported to Pensacola, Florida, for a year of intensive training. The curriculum included everything from Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE) and water survival to ground school and simulator flights for the T-6A Texan II.
“I wasn't a swimmer, I'll be honest,” Beadle confessed, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down pools, preventing her from getting lessons before she joined.
Another significant challenge was transitioning from a commercial airline passenger to a student learning how to operate a high-performance aircraft.
“I went from being a passenger on a commercial aviation flight to being in a T-6, which someone described to me as like your first car being a Ferrari, and I concur with that experience,” Beadle joked.
Despite the anxiety, the experience was exhilarating. She was particularly excited about aerobatic maneuvers, a key part of the aeromedical officer curriculum.
“I studied simulator sickness and motion sickness, in grad school," Beadle said. "I knew so much about it that I spent the whole week leading up to it thinking though how best to prepare and trying to answer questions such as, ‘What am I going to eat that day?’” The intense preparation paid off, and the experience of seeing the world from the front seat of a T-6 was profound.
Now at CNATRA, Beadle uses her unique background to improve the very training pipeline she went through, fulfilling a core AEP responsibility to assist with personnel selection and training. She is a data storyteller, translating raw numbers into actionable insights for leadership.
“I am the person who tells a story to the assistant chiefs of staff for training and operations and provide insight on what the data is telling us about our students in training,” she explained.
A key part of this is managing the mathematical component of the Naval Standard Score (NSS), a system used to standardize pilot performance assessment since the 1950s, a legacy derived by her predecessors.
Beyond the data, Beadle directly shapes the next generation of instructors. In the Flight Instructor Training Course (FITC), she teaches the science of learning and performance. "We talk about the human performance curve... that a little stress is good... but too much stress and you get to that point where you burn out," she said. Her goal is to equip instructors with tools to create an optimal learning environment in the cockpit.
One of the reasons Beadle was drawn to CNATRA was the opportunity to work with cutting-edge training technology, allowing her to directly engage in the research and development of human performance enhancement. Having studied simulator sickness, she is now at the forefront testing and evaluating the psychological effects of new aviation systems by integrating virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) devices into the training syllabus.
She was part of the team that tested and implemented the T-45 Mixed Reality devices, which allow student pilots to interact with a physical cockpit while immersed in a virtual world. A groundbreaking feature of these new simulators is the ability to link multiple units, allowing students to practice formation flying in a virtual environment.
"One of the cool projects I worked on was the T-45 MRs,” said Beadle. “You can link all of them together and get off and see each other in the airspace virtually, which you couldn't do... in the old ones.”
As a result, 14 syllabus events can now be conducted in the MR trainers, saving valuable flight hours and better preparing students for real-world scenarios.
For Beadle, being an Aerospace Experimental Psychologist is more than a job; it’s a commitment. "I'm not a civilian scientist, I'm not working for a big tech company. I am genuinely in a uniform with purpose," she stated. Wearing a flight suit grants her access and a level of peer-to-peer trust essential to her work. This is a key part of the role, as AEPs complete monthly flight time to get direct experience with and feedback from Aviators.It is a privilege that she has earned through a demanding training pipeline, culminating in one of the most memorable experiences of her life: a carrier landing and catapult launch in a T-45. "The coolest thing I've ever done, flying wise by far," she said.
That unforgettable experience, in conjunction with many others unique to naval aviation,isthe pinnacle of a demanding training pipeline. These moments are precisely whatallowAEPs to serve the very institution they were created for.
Headquartered at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) oversees five training air wings and 17 training squadrons across Florida, Mississippi, and Texas. These squadrons conduct primary, intermediate, and advanced flight training for student naval aviators, naval flight officers, and air vehicle pilots. CNATRA remains steadfast in its mission to train, mentor, and deliver the highest quality naval aviators prepared to win in competition, crisis, and conflict.
| Date Taken: | 04.28.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2026 12:12 |
| Story ID: | 563773 |
| Location: | CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | OTTUMWA, IOWA, US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Inside the Mind of Naval Aviation: Meet CNATRA’s Aerospace Experimental Psychologist, by LTJG Melvin Fatimehin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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