you do realize that in most countries airforces begin and end with couple of helicopters, cessnas and a couple of twins for skydiving/transport? Or do you insist that only Americans/British/French/German/Italian should be commercial pilots and everyone else should just stand by and applaud these great thoroughbreds and forget about creating our own airlines, jobs and sustaining the industry?

Aeolus2000BC, the youngest WWII pilot was not an American B-17 bomber pilot, but a young UK lad who flew Whitley bombers.

Thomas Dobney added 4 years to his age and joined the RAF as a pilot in 1941 at the age of only 14.

After training in Canada, he was awarded his wings at 15 and was posted to a Whitley bomber squadron.

He flew over 20 operations before his true age was revealed when his estranged father saw him in a photograph talking to King GeorgeVI who had visited his station in East Anglia.

The astonished father contacted the Air Ministry to ask why his 15 year old son was dressed in a pilot's uniform and talking to the King. Thus his true age emerged.

He was immediately discharged with a letter saying "The reasons are soley that you are below the minimum age".

He rejoined in 1943, but suffered serious injuries in a crash following an engine failure on take off, and by the time he recovered the war had ended. He remained in the RAF, flew in the Berlin Airlift and became a pilot in the King's Flight.

He then joined the Metropolitan Police before returning to the RAF as an Air Traffic Controller, and subsequently became a deputy art editor with the Daily Express in Manchester.

Tom Dobney died of cancer in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire in April 2001.

Many years ago I got to sit in the jump seat of a Qantas 744 en-route Heathrow. In the left seat was one of Qantas's most experienced captains (I recognised the name), in the right hand seat was a young pimply long haired kid.

The two seemed to gel and it was a very pleasant work environment during this flight.

I have no doubt the captain retired gracefully, and the kid grew up cut his hair and started filling the boots of those before him.

Number of hours doesn't equate to quality of experience (or training). To prove that point an F-18 instructor was telling me about a time he was training a bored corp jet pilot with thousands of hours who "jumped ship" to the USN. He couldn't do the carrier landings so he was released.

Yes, around 10 hours solo.... and some died on their first landing since the spitfire had such a narrow u/c wheelbase. I wonder why they weren't trained on hurricanes and converted to spitfires. What a world they had to live in.

Funny I meet this year "well trained military pilots" in TLS and I was really shocked about their "Top Gun" attitude. And this was not the first time...

I think we might be getting our World Wars mixed up here. 20 hrs total time might have been the case for new pilots arriving on squadrons in WWI (I don't know), but in 'First Light' Geoffrey Wellum records his arrival on a Spitfire Sqn in 1940 with 168 hrs total time, of which 95 solo (and none yet on Spitfires), which was presumably typical.

I worked at US's 2nd largest flight school. We had many foreign students in the late 1990s. Virtually all of our students from Latin America had jobs waiting for them back home flying 727, 737, etc once they completed their US Commercial, Multi, Instrument. That only requires 250 TT

It's an old argument, and those with any real experience of cadets vs experienced FOs will all say the same thing - it makes little difference. It is more about training, aptitude and, above all, attitude. The US 1500 hours limit is a band aid for the FAA to appear to be doing something after a spate of regional airline crashes that were more due to fatigue (which they are also addressing to some extent) and lack lustre training and attitudes, which they are not. Look at the various runway over-runs, the landings on incorrect runways or even airports, the SWA wheel barrow at La Gaurdia... the list goes on, but none of those accidents had a cadet FO. But do we see an unduly high accident rate in Europe, where cadet FOs are the norm, and have been common for decades? No.

Didn't Mexicana have an issue in the 70's or 80's whereas due to laws requiring pilots to be nationals they had an immense shortage leading to 19 year old SO's. 20 year old FO's and 21 year old Captains on the 727?