what's the difference in flying a plane for the army and flying a plane for the air force?

Question

my boyfriend wants to fly planes, and plans on majoring in mechanical engineering and doing a ROTC program at a state school in new hampshire.


what's the difference in flying for the army and flying for the air force?

Answer 1

I was a warrant officer aviator for nine years in the army. I chose the army because they didn't requre a college degree. Feel free to email or IM me if you have any specific questions.

BTW Randy C. In Vietnam I flew over three times the number of combat missions as the typical air force or navy fighter pilots. You may want to do a little research next time. A good place to start would be to go count the number of army, airforce and navy pilots whose names are on the Vietnam memorial. Then come back again and tell us that the army rarely sees combat missions. If the army number constitutes rare to you, then the airforce and navy numbers must look microscopic.

Answer 2

The chance of flying an fixed wing aircraft for the Army in 2007 and beyond is very slim. The only active Army aviation fixed wing unit is the 78 AVN BN. Check out the link...it provides all the Army fixed wing assets. He could fly unmanned recon aircraft but that would be by remote control. He could fly helo's in the Army but if his goal is to fly airplanes graduate from the Air Force Academy and go in the Air Force. Although the Army has fixed wing aircraft they mainly only provide routine passenger transportation, disaster relief, cargo transport, and patient transfers.

Answer 3

Basically, the Army provides most of the close air support for their own troops with helicopters. This also includes air transport of troops and equipment. The Air Force is supposed to be air superiority, tactical and strategic bombing, airborne combat and battlefield management, search and rescue, just to name a few.

However, there is a long standing argument between the Army and the Air Force (since WW II) of who should be doing what in the air. The Army has always wanted control of anything in the air from ground level to 10,000 ft and the Air Force could have the wild blue above that. The Air Force wants control of all fixed wing close air support, SAR and special ops as it has now. This issue will be brought to brighter lights since the addition of Predator drones and similar vehicles that operate below 10k ft.

If your boyfriend degrees in ME, he can choose anything he wants. It seems that flight test in any of the military branches would be a very good fit.

All the best to you & yours.

Answer 4

I believe the Army may only have recon planes and cargo type aircraft...Dunno for sure...but I'd bet that the Air Force would be on the cutting edge while the Army might only have utility type equipment.

Fact is your question seems like...who would have the best tanks? The Army or Air Force......The services have completely different missions

Answer 5

Army flies only troop transports and helicopters.

Air Force flies the fast fighter jets, as well, F-15's, F-16's (in National Guard) F-22's and F-18's.

He may want to consider the Navy. They fly some sweet planes, too.

Answer 6

Generally speaking:
Army=helicopters, more non-flight schools, easier tests, longer training time (18 months)

Air Force=jets and some helicopters, tough AFOQT (test) to qualify, harder pilot schools, shorter time (but still over a year)

Aside from officer and pilot training, flying with the AF is just that. Basically just flying. Air Force depends on the Army, Navy or Marines to save them if it goes bad. Course in a jet, when it goes bad, it usually goes really bad. All pilots are commissioned officers.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforcejoin/ss/afpilot_8.htm

Flying with the Army is more involved. Army requires more grunt training (comat survival) for everyone. ROTC will get him the degree to apply, but is not necessary. He just needs the degree. Once accepted, he'll have to attend nine weeks of basic combat training and six weeks of warrant officer candidate school. A warrant officer is a technical expert who specializes in a particular battlefield skill, such as flying choppers. Unlike commissioned officers, they continue working in their specialty, rather than moving up the chain of command. Then to Alabama for another 18 months of chopper schools.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/armytrng/ss/rotarypilot.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/usaavnc.htm

Answer 7

In years past the army air corp handled all roles of flying. With the addition of the air force, they took over most aspects of flying. The army pilots mostly fly cargo and supply missions with rare combat missions. The air force and navy handle most combat missions, with the marine corp pilots mainly giving ground support to the marines on the ground.

Answer 8

The first big difference is the types of aircraft that he would fly.
The second and most important is that the Air Force takes better care of their people..
Army: has big birds, slow movers, and lots of helicopters(some are very sophiticated and very cool)

Air Force: Has fast movers...jets.. and they also have big birds that perform special tasks such as surveilence, storm watch, and new aviation discovery.

I hope this helps. I spent 6 years in the Navy..some of the best pilots in the world. but if I were to fly a jet.. it would be for the Air force.

Answer 9

Usually AF planes are flown by Academy Cadet graduates.... The Army has a different lot of planes fixed and rotory.

Answer 10

IF you're flying for the army (I'm not even sure they use fixed wing airplanes) it will be a transport plane.

The Air Force has transports as well as fighter jets.