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Air Line Pilots

October 23, 1947

Statement of Retirement Problem

I wish to turn now to the problem of pilot retirement. I want to discuss very briefly five propositions about the problem of retirement. While piloting an air craft is probably not to be classified as a strenuous physical occupation, flying produces heavy strains on the human organism. Neither I nor anyone else can claim that men have flown long enough to determine all the effects, on the human body, of flying, particularly flying with responsibility for the lives of others. But of this I am sure: no other major occupation wears men out so quickly as air line piloting. This is my first proposition. My second proposition is that this fact--the high rate of wearing out--poses a major problem to pilots, to the air lines and to the nation. My third point is that the problem is mainly one for the industry--the employers and the pilots. Fourth, most employers have done nothing about the problem and those who have tackled it have done very little toward a solution. Finally, I submit that the time for the industry, in cooperation with the pilots, to act is here. I have some suggestions as to appropriate action which I shall set forth.

I. The Working Life of Pilots is Relatively Short.

We would be further along toward a proper solution for the retirement problem--and we would make faster progress in the future--if the air lines were less anxious to convince the public that air piloting is a lark, that it has no unusual hazards, and that, if only we live abstemiously and virtuously, our working lives will run longer than those of judges.

I wish it were fair to say that, in describing  the employer position, I exaggerate. But that position has been set out fully in