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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON AIR LINE PILOTS' RETIREMENT SYSTEM

Introduction 

The major problem of a retirement system for air line pilots is that of a relatively short working life. Most persons engage in occupations in which they can begin work at 19 or 20 and work on to 65 or 70 or even more. To be an airline pilot, however, requires a long period of training, a very high degree of specialization, and experience which cannot be secured in a short period of time. The average age at which pilots have begun work as such for an air line employer has been, in recent years at least, about 27. 

On the other hand, the air line pilot cannot continue in his occupation long enough to compensate for the long training period. On the contrary, he probably cannot look forward to any employment in his line after he reaches 50, and he may be disqualified by his employer or by the Civil Aeronautics Administration even before he reaches 50. Twenty-five years is a long working life for an air line pilot. 

Once a pilot is disqualified for his occupation, he experiences obvious difficulties in securing other satisfactory employment. Indeed, if there should be a repetition of conditions which prevailed in the 1930's, he may find it impossible to secure work of any kind after his flying days are over. Some pilots can be usefully employed by the air lines in nonflying jobs, but that will not absorb very many. Whatever work an ex-pilot might be able to secure would probably be temporary and certainly would yield a relatively low income.

It is a very vital concern not only to the pilots and their employers but to the country as a while that the air transport industry secure and retain, for as long as they can fly, the highest type of young me as pilots. The air transport industry has come to be a major form of transportation. It is to the interest of everyone that the development of air transport not to be held by any lack of high-grade personnel.

The industry is important not only in peace. It is even more important in time of war and in maintaining a state of preparedness. The air arm of the nation must have the highest efficiency at all times. This is not only because air pilots constitute a most important source of air officers, but also because the industry itself must render directly extremely important services during periods of war. 

No matter how high the pay of pilots, there is no adequate substitute for an adequate and efficient retirement system. The pay of pilots ought to be sufficiently high to enable them to make savings. But it is wholly unreasonable to expect a pilot, who is disqualified at a relatively early age, to provide himself with an adequate annuity out of his own savings. In cases of early disability that would be impossible even if the pilot saved 100 per cent of his pay.

Even if a pilot is fortunate and is able to earn a first pilot's pay for many years, there is no certainty that he will have a retirement income, for to do that he must not only save; he must invest wisely. The investment of savings is a highly specialized function. Even if pilots do save individually, some of them will make investments which will not turn out will. In any event, most investments depreciate in value during periods