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For the sixth dimension, technological adaptability, both the military and collegiate pathways rank high. One of the strengths of military pilot training is the technological sophistication of the aircraft the pilots are trained to fly. Although civilian aircraft technology is different, military pilots are well trained to adapt to changing technological environments. The potential strength of the collegiate pathway is the foundation that a good basic education provides for adapting to new technological developments. The ab initio and foreign-hire pathways probably provide somewhat less potential for technological adaptability. Ab initio programs are likely to be aimed more at teaching effective use of current technology than providing a foundation for future technological change. Indeed, this very feature is part of the reason that they can achieve such quick time to the workforce. The foreign-hire pathway is much the same. The least-promising pathway in terms of technological adaptability is likely to be on-the-job training. Despite the sophistication of some smaller aircraft such as modern corporate jets, the jobs that pilots hold while they build flight time and experience on the job and pursue appropriate ratings generally involve less technologically sophisticated equipment than the airlines currently fly. The seventh dimension, adaptability of supply to the fluctuating needs of the airline industry, has ratings similar to the cost to the airlines factor. Military training is the least adaptable to changing airline demand for pilots. First, the military bases its manpower needs on its mission, not on the needs of the civilian sector. Military and civilian needs are driven by quite different forces, and there is no reason to believe they will move in the same way. Second, even if the military were to respond to civilian pilot needsand there is no reason why it shouldthe military training time and service commitments mean that there is a lag of 8 to 10 years between the time a candidate is accepted into military pilot training and the time that pilot is available for civilian service. At the other extreme, ab initio training has the potential to be most responsive to changing personnel needs because the airlines themselves control the programs and because it has the shortest time to the workforce. The remaining pathways have intermediate potential along this dimension. They would probably be more responsive than the military, because pilots working in other segments of the aviation industry, including foreign airlines, can be called up with less experience when major airline hiring demands are high, and they can be left in these segments to obtain more experience when airline demands are low. Flight training at collegiate aviation institutions could, with the guidance of the airlines, be modeled closely on airline requirements, mimicking to some extent the ab initio model that prepares pilots to enter commercial cockpits after comparatively short training periods. In sum, this framework makes it clear why the military pathway, which combines low cost to the airline, rigorous selection and training procedures, and high technological adaptability, has been so attractive to the major airlines. But, as we have seen, the military's role as a provider of trained personnel for the
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