News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

BuudleN From Britain
British ~adet Training Program
By OUver Townsend
DOi\'N among the palm trees and orange groves of
America's deep South, far from the reach of
the Luftwaffe, more than 2,500 Royal Air Force cadets
are learning to spread their wings under the
careful guidance of the Air Corps. And, to use
their own expression, don't think they aren't
"keen" about it
The" lead ing aircraftsmen" --as Br itish flying
cadets are called--have been sent to this country
from all parts of the British Isles, and from all
walks of British life, to achieve through American
instruct ion the consncn ob ject ive of "doing the ir
bit" for Br itain in the air.
The 2,500 who are here now are part of a training
program designed to turn out British pilots at
a rate of well over 4,000 per year from Air Corps
flying schools in the Southeast Training Center.
Also in training here are approximately 900 British
cadets who receive an R.A.F. course of instruction
at six civil contract schools supervised
by the British Air Ministry, and about 200 navigators,
located at the Pan American navigation
.school at Coral Gables, Florida.
Get U.S. Course
The British who train in Air Corps schools receive
almost exactly the same course of instruction
as that given United States aviation cadets.
It consists of a five weeks' "reception course" at
the Maxwell Field Replacement Center, 10 weeks in
primary school, 10 in basic, and 10 more in advanced.
The only variation from the standard Air
Corps program comes in the ground school, where
courses in R.A.F. procedure, aircraft recognition,
radio code practice and current events are substituted
for some of the work usually included in navigation,
meteorology and mathematics. These latter
subjects are included in an eight-week ~eliminary
training course, known as the Initial Training
Wing, given the cadets before they leave England.
Enthusiasm for the American training course is
general among the cadets. Particularly impressive
to them is the high grade of U.S. flying, the high
training standards maintained and the quality of
Air Corps equipment. Most feel the planes they
use and the instructors who teach them are "all
that could be des ired."
No less enthusiastic has been their reaction to
the American world outside of the training fields.
They descr ibe the Amer iean people as unusually
friendly and much more sympa~hetic toward Great
Britain than they had expected.
From a social standpoint the cadets are a big
success. Invitations to dinners, parties, picnics
and dances come in constant ly- -at a rate which
greatly exceeds the number of cadets available.
Weekends almost invariably find the barracks deserted
by two o'clock Saturday afternoon--unless
midweek bad weather has made weekend flying necessary.
Interesting as the British have found the
"extra-curricular" phases of their training, it is
the time spent learning to fly that really counts.
And in this department they seem to be taking to
the American program of instruction--somewhat different
from the R.A.F. program--much better than
had been expected. British liaison officers stationed
at the schools say the cadets are progressing
"extreme ly we 11". Amer ican irnitructorsgenerally
agree with this view, and say the British are
doing excellent work considering their strange environment
and the slight differences in language_
Flight instructors at the schools, who perhaps
come into closest contact with the British, find
them to be on the whole an intelligent, interested
and conscientious group, looking forward to the
day when they can match the ir skill in the air
with that of "Jerry".
Instructors have found British reactions in the
air to be approximately the same as those of Americans,
and have experienced less difficulty in
teaching the "aircraftsmen" than they thought they
would. What trouble was encountered at first is
gradually being eliminated as both instructors and
cadets add to their experience. Some of thecadets
have demonstrated unusual proficiency for
flying, and have shown themselves capable of becoming
real aces after their return to England.
Want To Fly
Ground school instructors find that, like American
cadets, the R.A.F. trainees are more interested
in the flying phase of their training than they
are in the ground school. They are however, impressed
by the "I.Q." of the average Br iton, and
by his general knowledge and information. Some of
them--especially engineering instructors--though.
wish the British could have played with "Model
T's" and small gasoline engines when they were
younger, like most American boys do. Americans
coming into engineer ing courses usually have a me-
NOVEMBER
/94'
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