Page 4
Summer Session Kansan
Tuesday, June 23,1964
Commercial Pilot Shortage Threatens Major Airlines
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — The airlines are getting concerned over a problem that hasn't existed since the dawn of commercial aviation—a shortage of pilots.
United and Trans World, to cite two examples, are recruiting actively. And the Federal Aviation Agency has a special aviation manpower commission at work determining exact industry labor needs, with pilots one of the most troublesome areas.
The shortage, which is spotty at present but threatens to become a serious problem in relatively few years, stems from these factors:
THE AIRLINES' chief source of pilot material, the military, seems to be drying up. The increasing emphasis on unmanned missiles is one reason. The fact that 75 per cent of military pilots are choosing to stay in uniform is another.
The airlines themselves have lacked an aggressive recruiting and employment program among the nation's youth. In fact, one top United official said bluntly: "The airlines have failed to promote flying as a worthwhile career."
— The airlines require a student pilot to have at least a commercial pilot's license when he applies. At present, it costs about $2,500 to obtain a commercial "ticket" from a private flying school and this is an expense which undoubtedly has been a deterrent.
ALMOST UNNOTICED, the average age level of airline pilot has been creeping upward. It was 37 in 1959. It now is over 40. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) says more than 25 per cent of its 14,000 members will reach the mandatory retirement age of 60 within the next 15 years. ALPA's records show that more than 8,000 pilots will have to leave the cockpit in the next two decades.
The situation is considered critical enough for some airlines to be talking about starting their own primary flight schools. This is a frank admin-
sion that economics is a major reason why good pilot material hasn't been coming into commercial aviation. It takes at least 165 hours—at a cost of about $17 an hour—to obtain a commercial license. That covers use of an airplane and instructor. To get an instrument rating runs another $700.
EXTREMELY HIGH physical requirements have always been a deterrent. And airline training itself can be summed up in one word: rough. United, for example, hires only one out of 20 applicants and 15 per cent of those accepted for training flunk out.
UAL, the nation's biggest carrier,
is seeking to hire 1,000 new flight
officers by the end of 1965. To
achieve this goal, it has announced
the most drastic and unusual
recruiting program in airline history.
First, it is aiming at private pilots. United is now offering this group—there are about 50,000 of them in the United States—an opportunity to apply for student flight officer jobs before they obtain their commercial licenses.
SUCCESSFUL candidates will be promised employment with UAL provided they obtain their commercial license within one year.
A United Official explained:
"Qualified applicants can now be secure in the knowledge that personal expenditures for commercial licenses are no longer a speculative venture, but a sound investment in a career."
"Sound investment" accurately describes a decision to become an airline pilot. United's starting salary is $500 a month, with sizeable increases every year. By the end of the third year, the second officer or copilot on a UAL propeller-driven plane will be earning nearly $1,000 a month—double the starting salary which is no small jump in just three years. And veteran captains get around $25,000 a year or higher.
WASHINGTON — (UFI) The Federation of American Scientists has urged the United States to renounce germ and chemical weapons and seek to outlaw them by international agreement.
U.S. Scientists Urge Curb on Germ Weapons
SHOE SALE at ARENSBERG'S
"The result," the federation said, "would be to increase the likelihood of accidental war and to reduce the effectiveness of our own nuclear balance of power."
In a statement issued from its Washington headquarters, the federation said there have been implications "that the United States is using the Vietnamese battlefield as a proving ground for chemical and biological warfare."
It said the example of U.S. development of chemical and biological weapons is "certain to stimulate similar efforts in other countries."
The federation said biological weapons "are potentially very cheap" and could provide small non-atomic nations "for the first time with a striking power comparable to that afforded by nuclear weapons."
The Defense Department has confirmed use of chemical defoliating agents in an effort to destroy the jungle cover concealing rebel troop and supply movement in Viet Nam. But any other use of such weapons in Viet Nam has been officially denied.
Keds and Kedettes Ladies' Flats - - - 2.90 - 3.90 - 4.90
Cobblers and Jacquilines Florsheim and Winthrop Men's Shoes-------9.90 to 19.90
The federation urged that President Johnson declare a policy of "no first use" by this country of chemical and biological weapons, that the United States abandon "all mass production of biological weapons," and it stop development of new chemical and germ weapons.
ARENSBERG'S VI 3-3470 819 Mass.
Dress Heels by Joyce and Jacquiline----5.90 to 9.90
Pettit is a graduate of Michigan State University and has done graduate work at Northwestern University. He is a member of the Baha'i National Spiritual! Assembly and has traveled extensively in the past four years as a teacher. Prior to his travels, teaching and lecturing in over 47 states, he was employed as a sales representative in Louisiana and Texas for a large manufacturing corporation.
Paul R. Pettit of Clayton, Mo., will address a public meeting sponsored by the Baha's of Lawrence, at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Student Union on the topic "Creation to Chaos."
Artificial Human Heart Is Goal of 2 Texas Schools
The meeting will be open to the public.
Dr. Michael DeBakey, chairman of the surgery department of Baylor in Houston, will get $346,132 and Dr. William Akers, chairman of the chemical engineering department at Rice, will get $215,075.
IF THEY CAN combine the two for humans, as they have done for animals, they will have taken a great step in the complete artificial human heart.
heart. Doctors and chemists will test the use of an external electric source to energize a power source within the body and a system in which bellows are attached to body muscles for pumping when the muscles are stimulated electrically.
Official of Baha'i Will Speak Here
HOUSTON — (UPI) — Rice University and Baylor University College of Medicine have been given the green light and the promise of funds to develop an artificial heart for use in humans.
Akers and his Rice staff will develop engineering designs for the implantable heart and also offer advice on fluid dynamics of blood.
Funds of at least $650,000 will be authorized by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the joint project, which has as its goal development of a heart that can be used in humans within three to five years.
Two types of circulatory pumps are planned—one to offer temporary relief to allow damaged hearts to heal, and the other for total heart replacement.
UNDER THE PROGRAM, Baylor will handle the medical research and Rice will do the engineering on the mechanism itself.
Also, scientists must find a material that will withstand the pressure normally exerted on the heart.
Medical research on the project will be done largely in a $7.8 million building now under construction at Methodist Hospital in Houston.
Researchers already have tested a temporary circulatory pump on a patient. Baylor surgeons implanted an artificial by-pass to do the work of the left lower chamber of the heart in 1963. They are now working on a similar by-pass for the right lower chamber.
U. S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex.) said in Washington that the institute already has approved the grant.
THREE MAJOR problems face the project.
A way must be found to keep the artificial hearts from damaging body cells and a way must be found to provide power for the artificial pumps.
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.