My son just got a type one AFROTC scholarship.He plans on attending MIT in the fall major Aerospace Engineering. I know there is a 4 year commitment in the Air Force. He wants the opportunity to become a pilot. I know it’s one year flight school 10 year commitment. If he passes all the tests and is qualified, does he have to do the 4 years as an engineer first before he can go to flight school? Thanks for any info
Pilot Question
- Thread starter Annster31
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His major is just part of his education. If he is selected for the pilot path, he will go to flight training sometime after graduation. There is plenty of reading at primary AF sources your son can do to understand the career paths available after commissioning. Individual unit websites at schools of interest also have good info.
No. And regardless of whether he ultimately makes it to flight school or not, there is no guarantee that he will ever be an engineer in the Air Force.
Things may have changed over the decades, but my late father was career AF and had a bachelor's and master's in EE. I don't think he spent a single day as an engineer.
From my understanding, they most certainly have changed. There is an extremely high demand for EE in the Air Force right now, many cadets I talked to said a lot of cadets in EE or even ME who weren't rated went into 62E without much of an issue
The AirForce would pay for his education to become an Aerospace Engineer and upon graduation there is no guarantee they would use him?
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That's correct. He may not use his engineering skills to do engineering for the AF. That's not to say he won't. Those skills will become useful in other ways as a pilot, or overseeing some military engineering contract down the road.
Thank you
If he gets a pilot spot out of Rotc, then he would go to UPT for a year and if he gets his wings, he would have a ten-year commitment. Those ten years don't include time at UPT, time waiting for classes to start at UPT, or time waiting to go to UPT. Now if he were to do something else before, like being an engineer in the AF, that would qualify for the four-year requirement. However if at year 3 he were to apply and get a pilot spot, then again, he would go to UPT and he would have to give another ten years after he receives his wings. I am exaggerating, but 3/4 of the pilots have engineering degrees and most of them have never done anything with them in the Air Force. However if the pilot wants to becomes a test pilot, then having an engineering degree is almost a requirement. In the military, it almost seems like what you majored in college isn't relevant to the job you get. That really isn't true because when they need meteorologists, they use people who have a degree in it. However just because you have a degree in it doesn't mean you will get to be a meteorologist in the AF