Originally Posted by Andy

That doesn't match the historical record that I've read. There was extensive debate and studies before enacting the age 60 rule.

As far as Quesada wanting only ex-military to fly jets, that's also incorrect. There was a faction of the committee that wanted to limit the age of pilots allowed to enter jet training. They believed that past a certain age, pilots weren't able to transition to jet aircraft successfully.

There was also a recommendation to make retirement age 55 (not positive on the age, but it was lower than 60). I'm pretty sure that Quesada opposed this and wanted the retirement age to be higher.

The exact details are a bit hazy; it's been almost a decade since I read all of the committee reports, documents, etc. From what I've read, the 'Quesada/Smith conspiracy' has been way overblown and the historical record doesn't bear that out. Unfortunately, all of that was done prior to the internet so you've got to dig quite a bit for the reports.