Combat officers from the ranks only?

[Umar Al-Mokhtār]

in that the present system provides an eclectic mix of officers from all walks of life. Distiller's suggestion would dilute that broad crosscutting of education and experience. The IDF can pull it off because virtually everyone serves.

I do agree with Stan, in this day and age of NCO's holding master's degrees, why aren't some flying spots NCO slots. Maybe the military is not ready to put an enlisted man (OMG! Heresy!) in the hotshot seats (fast movers) but certainly in C-12s, C-130s, Sherpas, etc...

The Japanese used NCOs and Petty Officers to fly their fighters (it was cost effective) and they seemed to do a pretty good job. The officer pilots filled the squadron command billets.

[Ken White]

had enlisted pilots for many years -- and that many British Army pilots are enlisted -- there's the issue of service politics and parochialism. The US Army initially wanted enlisted hoptiflopter pilots and the USAF had a conniption fit, causing the Army to have to invent the Warrant Aviator.

Now the Navy has reinvented that wheel; LINK

The USAF is torqued because their Predator and Global Hawk fliers are officers and the US Army uses SPC Heebly to fly Shadows and Predators. Wait for it...

Dumb and dumber.

[Penta]

Outsider thought:

There's something, I think, to be said for opening up flight slots to NCOs...But NCOs with degrees only.

Flying an aircraft in an operational situation, thinks I, requires an intuitive grasp of physics, the ability to think instinctively in three dimensions, and a feel for spatial dynamics that most people don't have. You can figure that out from any reasonably-realistic flight sim, in my experience.

Doesn't mean one needs a degree - but the degree is a useful thinner for the bureaucracy.

The problem becomes, I think - if one were to make the switch, you run into the effect it may well have on morale of the current corps of pilots. The officer status sets them apart, gives them prestige - the flight status only enhances that, because it means you're part of an even smaller group - those few who are both officers, and (in their eyes) officers badass enough to become pilots.

[Ken White]

know a large covey of Army WO Aviators, dual rated and to include some former Mohawk drivers and one very talented Test Pilot, who possessed no degrees...

Capability, cost and functionality are the issues.

[Penta]

As I said, sir:

The degrees aren't necessary, but they make the process sane for the bureaucracy.

One could do without the degree requirement entirely, I think, and maybe be better for it - but I just don't see the bureaucracy accepting that.

[Umar Al-Mokhtār]

is not so much possesing a degree. Yes, holding a degree is used as a litmus test for new entrants. But NCO's are not new entrants and are rarely created in a few years; thus they have a different level of maturity, or perhaps better said: seasoning. The services would still send them to flight school and certainly a percentage would wash out, just like the college educated.

Ken, you don't know the half of it. ACC is obssessed with the fear that some pimply faced enlisted person might become, wait for it...

the first 21st Century ace (The HORROR!!!!!)

[Ken White]

...
Ken, you don't know the half of it. ACC is obssessed with the fear that some pimply faced enlisted person might become, wait for it...

the first 21st Century ace (The HORROR!!!!!)

they'll do what the Corps did with Ken Walsh and others and the Navy did with all their enlisted Aces, make 'em Warrants or Commission them during or after the fact.

'Face' is not just an oriental concept.

There are real requirements and then there are political and cultural requirements...

[CR6]

I just don't see the bureaucracy accepting that.

"The bureaucracy" accepts it now though Penta. When I commanded a recruiting company, several individuals with high school diplomas enlisted for the warrant officer flight program. It wouldn't be as hard a sell as you're assuming, in my opinion, if the services need pilots. That's the issue; what's the requirement? Are the services having trouble filling cockpits? The link provided by Ken suggests the USN has identified platforms requiring pilots. If the need for pilots outstrips the available pool, criteria for becoming a pilot will become less restrictive.

All that being said, Ken did write, "there are real requirements and then there are political and cultural requirements." Prejudices among decision makers would certainly play a roll in determining how a more "egalitarian" pilot selection process would be implemented.