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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1368.PDF
-h FLIGHT May g, 1940 TRAINING IN THE R.A.F. (CONTINUED) (Top) The I.T.W. stres-ses drill. (Below) Over fifty hourson an elementary type are put in at an E.F.T.S. in the regular Royal Air Force were to be granted. The R.A.F. College at Cranwell ceased to function as such. Permanent commissions were no longer granted to candidates from the Universities, though gentlemen who had already obtained proficiency certificates in the University Air Squadrons were still eligible to receive direct commissions in the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve, General Duties Branch. These provisions applied to that branch, which means the flying branch. They did not apply to some other branches where direct com- missions in the Volunteer Reserve continued to be granted. The branches in which direct commissions are still granted are: Equipment, Accounts, Medical, Dental, Meteorological, Legal, Engineering, Signals, Arma- ment, Intelligence, Operations Rooms, Code and Cypher and certain other branches. However, we are chiefly concerned with the training of pilots, air crews and aircraftmen. Commissions in the General Duties Branch are now only granted for the duration of the war, and are only granted to enlisted airmen. Incident- ally, there is no conscription for the Royal Air Force ; it is kept up to strength largely by voluntary enlist- ment and by men who express preference for it when called up in their age group for the Army. Moreover, the schools for aircraft apprentices are still working to capacity in providing a flow of highly trained aircraft- men for the squadrons and other units. The work of these schools for aircraft apprentices has been described before in Flight. Naturally, war condi- tions have made necessary some changes in their methods of work, but they are permanent institutions of the Royal Air Force and are therefore less subject to radical alterations in time of war than are many other institutions. Briefly, boys enter these schools between the ages of 15 and 17 and normally spend three years at them. During that time they receive an excellent general education and are also specially trained in one of the more important trades of the R.A.F., such as rigger, fitter, armourer, instrument maker, electrician, and wireless operator mechanic. There are separate Electrical and Wireless Schools for apprentices who specialise in such subjects. Air Crews and Qround Staff The trainees who have to be dealt with fall into two main classes, air crews and tradesmen who work on the ground. Air crews consist of pilots, observers and wire- less operator-air gunners. Volunteers for these callings must first present themselves at a Combined Recruiting Centre (all recruiting centres now deal with all three Services). There they are interviewed by a Selection Board and are medically examined. The Selection Board tentatively recommends some of the men for com- missions, but all enter as airmen. Then the men who are to be pilots and observers are sent to an Initial Training Wing. There are several ot these in the country, and they only came into being after the outbreak of war. They are not situated at regular R.A.F. stations, and there is no. aerodrome attached. Some of them are at seaside resorts, and the men are now all billeted in hotels which have been taken over. At the I.T.W. the men are given ground instruc- tion and physical training. They have to be in fine fettle for the work which lies ahead of them, and they have to learn something about the ways of a fighting Service. They are drilled until they become very smart, and have learnt the need for discipline and prompt obedience to orders. They are also taught to take command as well as to obey. Their P.T. instructors include well-known athletes, some of them professional boxers. Lectures are given, and the future pilots are given some instruc- tion in the Link Trainer. Most readers of Flight have some knowledge of the Link Trainer. Briefly, it is small-scale reproduction of Specialised training. A lecture on cameras at the Schoolof Photography.
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