There was no retirement age until Age 60 was forced on the pilots back in 1958 by the new FAA. ALPA was still fighting to get it repealed up until about 1970. This rule had nothing to do with safety; it was a deal between two W.W.II USAF Generals, AAL's C.R. Smith and Pete Quesada (sp.?) the first head of the FAA. It was a management/gov’t fix to screw pilots. It was to get rid of high paid pilots at the top of AAL the seniority list. It was done in the name of safety, because who can be against safety? It is like motherhood and patriotism. If we really want to do this retirement age correctly in the name of safety, we take the age of youngest pilot that experiences an in-flight incapacitation, say a heart attack at age 47, and that becomes the new retirement age.