According to the Air Force Times, the Air Force has officially decided that it will start sending new pilot training graduates not to F-16s, F-22s, or C-17s, but to UAVs.

Brig. Gen. Lyn D. Sherlock, director of air operations at the Pentagon, said

We would welcome volunteerism and hope some students will step up and put [UAVs] on their list.

As announced on AF.mil, Columbus AFB formally retired the final T-37 Tweet that was still supporting Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT).  Still, the Tweet will continue to fly at Sheppard AFB in support of Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT), primarily because the foreign pilots there have not received support from their home countries to transition to the T-6.

A list and short description of aircraft flown during a pilot’s career can be seen here.

…The first phase of pilot training was purely academics, learning the elementary concepts of flight and navigation.  The next phase was basic flight in the T-37, a twin engine jet trainer with the pilot and student sitting side-by-side.  The 1950s era plane had an agonizing engine sound that earned it the nickname “Tweet.”  It was in this aircraft that we were taught the fundamentals of takeoff, landing, and instrument flight.  The first flight in pilot training is traditionally called a “dollar ride,” a term which is sometimes applied to the first flight in any flying training program in a new aircraft.  The student is so clueless and the instructor pilot (IP) has to demonstrate (and thus fly) so much that the student is essentially a passenger.  Traditionally, the student gives the IP of his first sortie a dollar bill as a “tip” for the ride.  The dollars are often decorated with magazine clippings (some more risqué than others), phrases, or other details that might characterize the flight, the student, or the IP.  Many UPT instructors’ desks are littered with laminated, vandalized dollar bills.  The journey from the “dollar ride” to the first solo is amazingly short.  Read more