Pontius quotes "Today would there be the same opportunities for highly qualified FE to transfer to GE? I would doubt it as they would either have to drop rank or block promotions for a time."
I would suggest that the GE ranks are so specialized that an Air Eng would generally not be a good fit, except with extensive and expensive re-training.
I was a near retirement F/E with an airline when its future purchase of A/C indicated the demise of the F/E. Some of the younger and eager F/E's were offered pilot training. I think this was a better fit as the F/Es function on advanced commercial jets was more like a pilot than as an engineer. Some of our senior Captains and Crew Managers were previously Flight Engineers.
btw, on this forum is there a quote function instead of copy/paste?