I don't think you can do what you guys are suggesting without pissing off half the server.
And I don't think it's fair to require people who want to roleplay a capship captain to join an official faction and 'work their way up the ranks'. It already takes long enough just to work up the cash via trading, now you want to add weeks/months on top of that, just so someone can get to do what they wanted to do in the first place.