Youngest Captain Ever
 

Just interested to know the ages of some of the youngest pilots to ever make Captain rank among some of the Regional and mainline airlines in Australia?

My uncle - Harry Shaw - had a B707 command with QANTAS at age 27, way back in the long, dim, dark past :) .

Unfortunately, I was many years older than he before I scored a lhs in an airline jet.

I think Mr Tim Readman or Reedman (excuse the spelling) became Captain Tim at 27. QF B747-2/3/SP
Amazing really, especially as he had a career in GA before QF from memory. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

I know someone who has just been made Captain in a regional Airline aged 24.

Impulse has a young strapping lad on the 1900 at the tender age of 22.

I got to be captain of a Chipmunk when I was only 20.

In the early days of Australian National Airways there was a Captain aged 21 years as I recall. He was commonly known as Walter Mitty.

Anyone else remember? :)

I didn't realise the Chippie was a pre War design, Walking Eagle. :)

LoLevel are you sure about that? To be selected for aircrew in the US, you must have a college degree. Twenty sounds to young to have both a degree and a command.

A number of years back, didn't the RAAF have an F111 pilot at the age of something like 19?

Unfortunately same guy tragically killed doing low level sortie over northern NSW. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

I was led to believe (by his wife, if I recall correctly), that St..... Bi...... was the youngest ever B707 capt in Oz, for QF. Not sure how old he was at the time, now B767 capt for QF.

Mark Fallon became an F111 skipper at 19. He and his nav, William Pike, crashed near Tenterfield in 1987.

EPIRB...ne degree required...just preferred by some major airlines....required to be 23 for an ATP...but that's about it

There was a Capt at AN nsw who was 24 when he recieved a command on the Fokker 50.

Got to be in the right place at the right time. Like many Lancaster pilots who got their commands at age 19 during the war and were flying on operations over Germany getting shot at. Unfortunately too, some were in the wrong place at the wrong time and did not survive.

I know of 2 blokes who both got commands in Brymon(UK) by 22ish on Dash8-300. One has become a line trainer at,I think, 23-24!

Centaurus,
Yes indeed and many people do not know that the Lancaster was a single pilot four engined night bomber.

I had the privelege of flying with a few of the survivors. In almost all cases the one quality which stood out was their humility. Can't say the same about a fair proportion of posters on this forum or in the wider community.

Unfortunately.

Bendigo....yes..MILITARY pilots....was under the impression the post is about civilian aircrew...hence no degree required

I think one of the youngest 737 Captains in the UK is a 24 yr old in easyJet!

Dusty Lane gained a DC3 command at AN shortly after turning 21.