The British, French and Italian Governments detailed to this country, upon our appeal, a few expert fliers and teachers of flying to aid in the early development of our effort and cadets were sent from the United States to the flying fields of Canada, England, France and Italy to hasten their training. Some of these joined the flying forces of those countries and others returned after a few months to become instructors at our own hastily established fields. The few civilians and army men who had learned flying in pre-war days were at once set to work as instructors at the primary fields. The most apt of the American cadets, of whom many took to flying as do birds of the air and quickly became expert, were used as instructors at the home fields instead of being sent overseas for service. And so finally an expert and capable instruction personnel was built up and a system of instruction evolved that represents a work of such diligence, ingenuity, resource and enthusiastic and incessant effort as to make it one of the many memorable achievements of the war.
At the beginning of the evolution of the training system it was necessary to organize medical boards to pronounce upon the physical fitness of candidates. The requirements were rigid and the work was new and therefore the highest available medical skill must be obtained. Fifty or more of these boards were established and in the first year examined nearly 40,000 men, of whom almost half were unable to pass the severe tests. As the months went on, experience developed the methods of determining the applicant’s physical fitness for flying to a remarkable degree of efficiency. The American system of training diverged somewhat, at its very beginning, from that of other nations, since it demanded a higher degree of scholastic attainment, a collegiate degree or a certain amount of collegiate work being a requisite, as it was believed that the mental development thus obtained would enable the student flier to advance more rapidly. As the system was finally developed, the candidate who had passed successfully the initial physical test had first a month of military training at a camp devoted solely to this work to give him due regard for discipline and for accuracy of statement in the making of reports, to inspire him with military morale and to give to his body and spirit a thorough testing in order that those who should fall short under its severe demands might be sifted out at the beginning.
Airplane Ambulance
American Flying Field in France
Then came two months in a ground school, of which there were eight located in as many universities and technical schools in different parts of the country, where the cadet, under military discipline, received practical and theoretical training in the study of motors, airplane construction and other elements of aviation. By means of long hours and close application the young men did as much work during the two months spent at these schools as they would ordinarily have covered during an academic year. The next step was training at a field for primary flying under the dual control system and practice in solo flying until the cadet could pass the requisite tests which permitted him to be graduated as a Reserve Military Aviator, with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he passed on to other fields where he was taught advanced flying, acrobatics, night flying, formation flying and aerial gunnery, and afterward to a specialized field where he qualified to be a pursuit pilot and fly and fight his own machine, or to be a bombing or an observation pilot, or to do reconnoissance or photographic work.
At the close of hostilities fields for every specialty had been constructed and equipped and the system of training was receiving its final development in the establishment of brigades at a large flying center where the men were formed into squadrons, trained for work together and sent overseas as a flying unit. The signing of the armistice found one such great center, ranking among the largest plants the United States had constructed for the prosecution of the war, almost completed, its several coöperating fields able to handle over 7,000 men at a time and turn out a steady weekly installment of air squadrons, each with its eighteen flying officers, five ground officers and 150 service, supply, construction and repair men, trained, organized and ready for the final two or three weeks of experience at the flying fields overseas before being sent to the front.
The system of training thus worked out had been evolved in the face of many difficulties. There were no text-books, no traditions, no bodies of accepted rules and methods. As finally developed, it was modeled somewhat on the British system, with important modifications and differences. But the passing months saw in it, as it evolved, many and sometimes striking changes. It was constantly in a fluid state, subject to the results of experiment and of observation upon the cadets in training, to the conclusions of instructors and field commanders after comparison of experience, and to the evolving ideas of scores of air service men. And especially was it subject to the information, suggestions and orders that came back from the battle front in France, where air warfare was being shaped daily and weekly by war conditions and demands into new methods and new developments. And the training on these fields four thousand miles away had to be kept closely in touch with these constant developments and imperious needs and its methods and aims changed from day to day, if necessary, to meet the requirements.
By experiment, observation, steady thinking at high pressure and comparison of ideas on the part of every instructor, every officer and every cadet at every field, methods of instruction were hammered out for each phase of the work. Each field brought its offering of daily experience and almost every flight contributed something to the accumulation of facts out of which grew, finally, some surety of knowledge. Into the development of methods flowed a steady stream of ideas, discoveries, experiences and experiments, and so day by day the American system of training grew to better results and higher efficiency. Text-books, for the most part, were type-written or mimeographed accounts of results that had been gained the month, or the week, or the day before by following certain methods, with comments and suggestions as to their use.