It has long been established that the
airlines like to hire former military pilots. For a long time former
military pilots made up the vast bulk of commercial airline pilots. The
reason for this extend back to the end of the second world war. During
World War II (1939-1945) the United States trained over 250,000 pilots. The government went to great lengths to
insure that these candidates were intelligent, educated and in excellent
physical condition. Essentially uncle Sam had fully screened all of
these potential future airline pilots. These men then received the best flight training in
the world and followed that training with considerable real world
experience often in the worst possible conditions.
Following
World War II there was an economic boom in the United States and the
demand for airline pilots rose. When the existing airline pilots were supplemented by the supply of freshly minted aviators military aviators (who were released in mass by Uncle Sam), a fertile recruiting ground
for the airlines resulted. Some of these young men never wanted to see an
airplane again and a large number of them went back into non-aviation civilian life;
one even went on to become president of United States. But the others
found that the military had given them a vocation and an entire
generation of airline pilots was born.
For pilots without
military backgrounds the competition was extremely stiff. Many of these
pilots spent entire careers toiling in commercial aviation's backwaters for low wages in flying schools, small
commuter airlines or freight haulers. Breaking out of that lower rung of
aviation could prove itself to be most difficult. As Jets started to
enter the airlines the demand on pilots became even more stringent. Even
the experienced World War II veteran pilots were finding these sleek
new planes hard to keep up with. The air force, navy & marines were
ahead of the airlines in jet training so jet qualified military
aviators became an even more sought after commodity by the major
airlines. This made it even harder on pilots without a military flying
background. As late as the 1970s over 80% of airline pilots were former
military pilots. This trend would continue until well after the Vietnam war which had provided another large cadre of young military veteran aviators.
However, in
the mid 1970s there was the beginning of a slow change in the situation. The
increased capability and cost of military aircraft combined with the end of America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict meant that the military would
need to do more with less airframes and shrinking training budgets. This meant less pilots. This was
followed by slowing economic times and the fact that the military had become a better
place to make a career. Many pilots elected to stay in the service
until retirement but because of the reduced demand for new airline pilots about 80% of new
hires were still coming from the military. That was a situation which would not last.
The
situation really changed in 1978 when the airlines were deregulated
throwing the already fluid situation into further turmoil. Between
labor strife and a flailing economy the airlines began to drastically
cut wages and benefits. Now even more young military officers found the Armed
Forces a better place to stay. About this time the ratio of civilian
only pilots versus military trained pilots was about 70-30. This
was on the eve of an upcoming wave of retirements from World War II
veteran pilots. Pilots trained by the military between 1941 and 1945
were having to retire between the late 70s and mid 80s.
This
created a situation where for the first time since the second world war
there were simply not enough military trained pilots to meet the needs
of the civilian operators (by this time the proliferation of corporate
aviation was adding to the drain on the pool of available pilots). To
help prevent a future exodus of military pilots the Armed Forces began
increasing the commitment to undergo pilot training. The commitment had
been six years after completing training but was eventually extended to
nine years after training. This put a military officer halfway towards
his retirement (and a life time 50% pension) by the time he had finished
his commitment to the military. This went a long way toward closing the
door on young military pilots for the civilian market.
The
military also learned another little trick. The airlines only hire pilots who
are proficient and currently flying. The average military pilot only flies
between five and seven years before he is given a desk job. This means
that at the end of their nine year commitment they were not current and
had usually not flown a plane for at least two years. This made them
far less appealing to the airlines. Some military pilots actually had
to go fly for commuter airlines for a year or two to get recurrent before they were hired by major airlines.
Something else was
occurring about this time. Most of the commuter and regional airlines
had transition to turbine powered aircraft (mostly turboprops but in
some cases jets). By the late 1997 regional jets were starting to
become popular. Advances in regional airline and civilian flight school
training programs (to include the use of level D simulators) created an
ever increasing pool of civilian pilots who were well trained in jets
and fluent in airline operations.
The military was once again
getting more capable and even more expensive aircraft but less of them.
This in turn resulted and even fewer pilots being trained. Combined
with the increasing number of highly qualified civilian pilots the
hiring situation eventually began to reverse itself. More military
pilots were staying in the service for at least 20 years or more
civilian pilots were building large amounts of jet time. It was getting
more common to see a 43 year old retired lieutenant colonel in a major
airline new hire class than a 28 year-old junior officer.
Today
over 60% of pilots hired by major airlines have civilian only
experience. Most of the military officers joining the airlines are
either retired or active reservists. The advancement of unmanned aerial
vehicles, the over decade long commitment for military pilot training,
improvements in military pay and benefits as airline pay and benefits
decline all conspire to help to hold down the number of military pilots
available to the airlines. The discussion has already begun about whether to give UAV time some sort of credit on an airline application (at the moment that answer is no, but that may eventually change). The vast number of experienced jet pilots
from the regional airlines have greatly diminished the need for pilots
with a military background.
Now that the military trains fewer
pilots than it has since the Second World War, there is mathematically
no way the military could supply enough pilots for the airlines predicted needs. The last of the Vietnam era pilots will have to retire
by 2015 and there has been no mass military pilot training since 1973.
There is a huge forecast for airline pilots In the next 10 years and
there will be an even greater percentage of civilian only pilots in
those ranks.
