@DaAwesome2 said:
@Timandm:
Then you're essentially sayin' that any one who tests aircraft for any airline has a great deal of willpower. LOL. Yeah. I'm puttin' words in your mouth. Nah..seriously...I don't know any test pilots so I will have defer to your knowledge on the matter. I do, however, assume that airlines have plenty of test pilots. Boeing, in particular, has a chief test pilot. Was Hal the Chief one? And did he work in the private or public sector? I thought he worked for the military. But I admit, I don't know all the specifics.
It's hard to say who he worked for since the story lines keep getting retconned and what not... But, didn't he, at some point, have a girl friend whose father actually owned a company that built jets?
As for " knowing "test pilots, I've actually only known one personally. He was this really kewl older guy that was my grandma's boyfriend. He was testing the latest military planes back when Hoover was president... But I have read about test pilots. Not in comics, I mean in biographies and what not... They are a cocky bunch, but then they absolutely HAVE to be... Cocky, by definition, means supremely confident, and if you're not that, then I don't want you in the cockpit of a plane that I'm not sure will fly well... We all have heard of some notorious test pilots. Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, Howard Hughes...
But, what I'm getting at is this...
It is difficult to become a pilot...
It is even more difficult to become a jet pilot, AND the number of positions are rather scarce compared to other fields... Think on it.. How many police officers, fire fighters, teachers, computer engineers,etc. are there in the world... Now, how many jet pilots? Much much less... There's a great deal of competition.
Now, beyond that, a 'test' pilot for new jets? it's not as if one can pick up the want ads and see a bunch of listings... How many are there? In the U.S. I'd be surprised if the number went over triple digits. There aren't that many companies that manufacture jets... and when they are making new jets, they are only making a few at one time, so it's not as if they need many pilots...
You're a college graduate, right? How many pre-med students did you know in school? Did you see them freaking out near graduation because they suddenly realized how much competition there was just to GET INTO medical school? Well, there are far more doctors then there are jet pilots. Can you imagine how fierce the competition is? it HAS to require SOME strength of will...
But, I think I've rambled on about this long enough....
Perhaps the truth is... Hal Jordan would have enough Will Power to be a Green Lantern even if he had never been a pilot... He probably could have been a notary public or parking attendant and still been a Green Lantern... Maybe we should discuss Beer colored Lantern's now!
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