Medicine: Profile of a Flyer

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What personality makes the best jet pilot? Air Force Psychologist Saul B. Sells told the Aero Medical Association last week that after a five-year study, still going on, he and his colleagues have constructed this composite picture:

A youngster who derives his greatest satisfaction from "aggressive, masculine, gregarious activities [in which he seeks] dominance." He is interested in everything built around an engine, from hot rods and high-powered cars to flying machines, along with anything mechanical, scientific or military.

His character is harder to define than his interests: he should be generally free from anxiety, insecurity and aversions, and immune to annoyances; not easily swayed by suggestion and emotionally stable. While alert and able to do things fast, he is restrained in thought, perception and action. Concerned about making a good impression on others, he already has a good one of himself; he must have an inner need to be conscientious, persevering and hardworking. Above all, he must have good self-control.

Along the way, Dr. Sells's co-workers at Texas' Randolph Air Force Base disposed of a couple of fallacies. Good combat flyers with markedly abnormal personalities are the exception, not the rule; in military (but not in civil) aviation, the best flyers have the most accidents—simply because they do most of the hazardous flying.