But the well-trodden pathway that has seen military crews swap one uniform for another could now be reversed, with the USAF investigating the possible recruitment of commercial airline pilots laid off on the back of coronavirus.

Although still in the early stages, the USAF initiative could help it address shortages of key personnel. Presumably, it would not throw ex-airline pilots straight into the cockpit of a fast jet, but with a number of airliner-derived types in the service’s inventory, it is not too much of a logical leap to imagine a former Boeing 767 captain finding employment at the controls of a KC-46A tanker, for example.