Since almost the beginning of the commercial airline business, junior pilots have had to toil years in the second chair waiting to win a pair of captain’s wings. Now Delta Air Lines Inc. is offering them the chance to vault into a captain’s seat in as little as six months. The catch? The promotion requires flying an unloved, aging plane nicknamed the “Mad Dog” that Delta plans to retire in three years.

The McDonnell Douglas Corp. MD-88 jets are the oldest aircraft in operation at any major U.S. carrier. They come with quirks such as glare-prone skylight panels called “eyebrow windows” that were common when pilots sometimes navigated by the stars. And they’re so noisy that some New York politicians, including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, cheered when Delta recently pulled the planes from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Now the jets are helping to topple traditional timetables on pilot careers, as Delta awaits deliveries of new aircraft and contends with a graying pool of aviators. Senior pilots shun the MD-88s for newer Airbus SE or Boeing Co. jets, now the industry’s standard equipment. But some junior co-pilots who covet the prestige and higher salaries awarded captains aren’t so choosy.

“The good side of M-88 is that there is such HATE for it that seniority happens in crazy fashion,” read one recent post on a Delta pilot forum. “In one year you will be able to hold holidays and weekends off.”