4 ms·

Weirdly, the article says almost nothing about the impact of drones on career pilots, especially their will to reenlist. The focus was fighter jocks, but I dou

Weirdly, the article says almost nothing about the impact of drones on career pilots, especially their will to reenlist. The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially -- the skills of flying passengers or freight don't overlap much with dogfights, missile tech, or flying invisible. The article also says nothing about which kinds of pilots are in shortest supply (fighter, heavy, rotary, carrier-based fighters, VTOLs, etc), or which service suffers most. It briefly mentions the cost of training fighers, but nothing on non-fighter pilots, which must make up the vast majority of onboard pilots, much less the cost of drone pilots. Nor does it mention the rate of departure for all of these MOSes. IMO, this article went to press with far too little background research. That, or it was edited out later.

Doxterpepper 8y ago
> The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially My understanding from folks I've talked to in the airline business is that they generally want people who flew fighters. Those people who have previously taken aircraft to their maximum limits are not as freaked when things go wrong in the cockpit of an airliner.
alexhutcheson 8y ago
> The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially -- the skills of flying passengers or freight don't overlap much with dogfights, missile tech, or flying invisible. My understanding is that the main "skill" commercial airlines are looking for is flight hours - lots and lots of flight hours. The combat-focused skills obviously don't transfer, but an experienced fighter pilot is still very prepared to transition to flying commercial flights if they want to.
thrill 8y ago
Probably the majority of fighter pilots end up flying for the airlines once they leave active duty. For one thing, the airlines are just as desperate to find qualified pilots, though that's greatly driven by the ups and downs of the economy.

Doxterpepper 8y ago

> The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially My understanding from folks I've talked to in the airline business is that they generally want people who flew fighters. Those people who have previously taken aircraft to their maximum limits are not as freaked when things go wrong in the cockpit of an airliner.

alexhutcheson 8y ago

> The focus was fighter jocks, but I doubt most will end up flying commercially -- the skills of flying passengers or freight don't overlap much with dogfights, missile tech, or flying invisible. My understanding is that the main "skill" commercial airlines are looking for is flight hours - lots and lots of flight hours. The combat-focused skills obviously don't transfer, but an experienced fighter pilot is still very prepared to transition to flying commercial flights if they want to.

thrill 8y ago

Probably the majority of fighter pilots end up flying for the airlines once they leave active duty. For one thing, the airlines are just as desperate to find qualified pilots, though that's greatly driven by the ups and downs of the economy.