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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0871.PDF
MARCH 21, 1940 269 THE AUSTRALIAN EFFORT 14,300 Pilots : 16,000 Other Ranks : 27,000 Ground Staff THE magnitude of Australia's part in the EmpireAir Scheme is now being realised. Latest announce-ments state that within three years the Common- wealth will train 14,300 pilots and 16,000 other air per- sonnel. In addition a ground staff of 27,000 will be needed to maintain the aircraft in use and provide all the necessary ground services. This totals up to about 57,000 men. As Australia's population is about 7,000,000, this means that nearly one per cent, of the total population of men, women and children of all ages will be engaged directly in the scheme Assuming that the ages of the men engaged lie between 18 and 38, a calculation shows that as many as one in twenty of this age group will be involved. Four Regional Commands Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett has been appointed Chief of the Air Staff and has already arrived out there. He has immediately made changes in the organisation and adopted the system of having four regional commands. The Air Board has been increased to five and Air Vice-Marshal Williams is member for organisation and equipment. A new post of Director-General of Production and Supply has been created and will be filled from outside the Air Force. The Australian Government is at present planning and establishing the training centres, and it is reported from Australia that the first school will open in April. Recruiting is now starting and mobile units are being used to tour the country districts. The recruiting organisation, which is controlled from Sydney, expects to have to investigate up to the interview stage about 250,000 young men in *z\ years. This is on the assumption that about one in five will be found suitable. An intake rate of 1,000 recruits per month for duties in the air is aimed at. So far, of the 56,000 men who have offered themselves, 8,500 have volun- teered for air crews, and 40 per cent, have been accepted. As each recruit is accepted, he will be given a badge denoting membership of the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve, even though his training is not immediately started. The possession of the badge will make him in- eligible for enlistment in any other branch of the forces. The training of the ground staff for the maintenance work will call for enormous expansion in the technical education facilities of the Commonwealth. The technical schools of the capitals, which had already established classes for training ground engineers for civil aviation, will expand their activities to provide courses in addition for radio- operators, fitters and turners and tool-makers. The exist- ing civil airline organisations, too, will aid in maintenance work by undertaking it under contract. Men between 18 and 45 can enlist as fitters provided they have had several years' practical work in engineer- ing workshops. If they can obtain a 60 per cent, pass in a trade test they will then undergo two months' specialised Air Force training before being allotted to maintenance work on airframes, engines or armament. The rates of pay during training will be £2 16s. per week for single men and £3 17s. for married men, with 7s. per week extra for each child under 16. In addition, of course, free messing, quarters, clothes and medical attention are pro- vided. Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, Australian Chief of Air Staff, in consultation with Mr. Fairbairn, Australia's Air Minister. Those who obtain a 40 per cent, pass will be allo- cated to training establishments in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra for six months, after which they will be again tested. While under training they will receive 5s. per day, with extra allowances for married men, with, of course, the usual quarters and messing. 1,728 Aircraft The aircraft for this huge scheme total 1,728. Primary and intermediate trainers will be manufactured in the Commonwealth. The de Havilland Aircraft Co. will make Moth Minors and Tiger Moths, and finished Minors and unfinished parts have already been shipped out from the English factory. Elementary trainers will number 486. The Wirraway intermediate trainers are now being turned out by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, and of these Australia will provide 82 and Great Britain 233. Advanced trainers will be supplied from Britain, the total being 336 Fairey Battles and 591 Avro Ansons. In addition, but not for the scheme, America is supply- ing Lockheed Hudsons. During the expected duration of the scheme, some three years, Australia will spend about £A25,000,000 on the production and maintenance of aircraft. The industry will be controlled by an Air- craft Commission, with Mr. Harold Clapp as chairman. The Bristol Beauforts, which will be manufactured by contract and sub-contract from the Aircraft Commission, are for supply to Great Britain for combatant duties. It is likely that they will be powered by Pratt and Whit- ney Twin-Row Wasps, as the manufacture of these can be started more quickly than Bristol sleeve-valves. Carg»* Ships of the Air after case of pig bristles were unloaded from a K.L.M. ~ aeroplane which landed in England from Holland the other day. The pig bristles came originally from Latvia and are to be used in England foi the manufacture of hair brushes, inis is only one instance of the many and varied cargoes HansP°rted from one end of the earth to the other in the P , • ^rgo ships of. the air. One " skytramp " arrived in England the other day carrying such oddly assorted things as ^/er fox furs, skins of all shapes and sizes, diamond dies, reiess parts, machinery, newspapers, oil samples, electronUDes aQ a an oil painting. The uses of the aerial tramp are many and varied. Betore the war one carried three tons of ordinary house bricks from Holland to England. Aircraft have been converted into flying menageries when animals of all sorts ranging from performing fleas to 16 ft. pythons and fully grown lions have been carried in the same plane. And just before the war a "flying fish- pond '' arrived at Croydon Airport. It was an airliner the whole floorspace of which had been converted into a big fish tank and filled with water to carry fish from the tropics. On another occasion the same idea was utilised, and as the skytramp cruised along two miles above the earth's surface, half a dozen baby crocodiles swam lazily round in the specially warmed water. Not even Jules Verne thought of that.
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