For decades, the traditional route to an airline cockpit followed a familiar pattern – aspiring pilots learned to fly independently, paid for ratings however they could, accumulated hours through flight instruction or charter work, and then competed for regional airline jobs before eventually reaching a major carrier. The journey was expensive, uncertain, and largely disconnected from the airlines that would one day employ successful candidates. That model is now changing, with two of the largest carriers in the US becoming involved years earlier than ever before.