U.S. Air Force Overhauls Pilot Training Again To Increase Pace

Faced with a chronic pilot shortage and further affected by an inability to produce enough aviators to fill the gap, the U.S. Air Force has overhauled its initial pilot training program again by looking outside the service.

Air Education and Training Command (AETC) last fall implemented a new model, sending student aviators to pilot training schools for fundamentals before they undergo undergraduate training. The change puts young flyers through intensive training on basic airmanship, instrument and multiengine flying competencies at FAA Part 141-certified schools before they go to Air Force bases to start training on the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II.

Under this new Initial Pilot Training (IPT) model, AETC expects to increase its training total from approximately 1,300 per year to the needed 1,500 by 2027 to help chip away at the pilot shortage that has long been at about 2,000 fewer than needed. The approach is not only for future U.S. Air Force aviators—international students assigned to the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program also will participate.

“If we scale this, and the plan comes to fruition as we think it will, this will be the new way of doing undergraduate pilot training, and this approach will yield us the 1,500 pilots a year,” AETC Commander Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson says.

Under the IPT program, students first headed to the Brunner Aerospace flight training program in Texas and the University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation program, located in Arizona. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, also took an initial small group of tryouts.

The Air Force paid tuition for the students, who underwent training first in aircraft such as Cessna 172s, Piper Archers and Diamond DA40s for single-engine operations and then on Piper PA-44 Seminoles and Diamond DA42s for multiengine training.

The service’s main requirement, in addition to the Part 141 certification, is that the pilots fly aircraft with modern, glass avionics to prepare them to fly newer aircraft like Lockheed Martin F-35s and Boeing KC-46s.

Students are assigned to the schools for 140 days and receive 110 hr. of training to build that “strong foundation” before being assigned to an AETC base for military-specific training on T-6s, says Brig. Gen. Matthew Leard, AETC director of plans, programs and requirements. At an AETC base, pilots fly about 55 hr. in the T-6 before going through either fighter and bomber training in the Northrop T-38 or to mobility, special operations or rotary wing-specific instruction.

The Air Force developed the IPT in part to lessen the stress on the T-6 fleet, which was challenged under the previous training model amid maintenance and reliability issues. This has contributed to a backlog of pilots and required the Air Force to send would-be pilots to other assignments, such as studying at the Air Force Institute of Technology, as they wait for training slots.

While overall T-6 flying hours per student will be cut significantly, the students will accumulate more overall flying time with the initial phase.

“This is where we’ve been challenged . . . [in] getting enough flying hours in the T-6 to actually get roughly 1,500 pilots a year through that,” Leard says. “So as we [approached] this we looked at . . . the things we really need those flying hours to focus on—military instructor pilots, military aircraft. Let’s have the flying hours and instructor pilots focus on that. And then what are the things we don’t need them to focus on? It’s basic airmanship, instrument procedures [and] navigation. And then, where are those really readily available [for] high-quality training?”

Pilots training to fly mobility aircraft, such as airlifters and tankers, will receive multiengine training only with the PA-44s and DA42s before being assigned to a tanker, such as the KC-46, or airlifter like a Boeing C-17. The service is retiring the Raytheon T-1A Jayhawk, which had been used for multiengine training.

Seven classes were in the pipeline under the new program as of March. The Air Force expects it to scale up all its training by 2027, and more schools will have the opportunity to bid on service contracts.

Robinson says the IPT results have been positive, with the bulk of students performing at a quality higher than under the previous method. So far, one student pilot washed out, and another quit. The AETC has been able to reduce the number of student pilots awaiting training.

“We’ve been able to move fast by using those [schools], and we’ve learned a lot about what we want the long-term contract to look like,” Leard says. “At the end of the day, this is an integral part of our future pilot training pipeline, and we’ve got to make sure that we get this right.”