EMPIRE AIR SCHEME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20486, 21 February 1941, Page 12

EMPIRE AIR SCHEME

EXCELLENT PROGRESS CANADA’S CONTRIBUTION STEADY FLOW OF FLIERS LONDON, Dec. 15. Excellent progress is being made with the Empire Air Training Scheme, which,, coming into operation at the beginning of last May provides for the training of 20,000 pilots and 30,000 air crews each year, writes the air correspondent of The Times. Although it is a co-operative Empire war effort, the main contributor is Canada, and it is in that Dominion that the scheme is largely operating. Australian and New Zealand pilots who receive initial tuition in their own countries are going to Canada for the final stages, while South Africa’s part in the scheme takes the form of a self-contained training plan. Many Southern Rhodesian pilots receive their later training in Britain. Most of the airmen are being recruited in Canada, but contingents are being sent from Great Britain and the two Dominions.

A total of 115 training establishments in Canada has been planned. Sixteen elementary training schools out of 26, and 48 out of 83 schools of all types will be operating by the end of this year. ' Canadian Expansion

At' the beginning of October Canada had some 26,000 officers and men in the Royal Canadian Air Force, of whom 16,600 were included in the Empire Air Training Scheme. Five thousand men are in training under the scheme. Recruiting is, of course, still going on, 2286 men having offered their services in the first week of October alone.

No fewer than 84,000 applications to join the Empire Air Scheme have been received in Australia, of which 14,000 are for air crew duties and 70,000 for ground staffs. In all, 34,381 Australians have been accepted and the rate of calling up for preliminary training has been speeded up by 25 per cent. Of the 26,000 men needed for ground staff duties in Australia nearly 20,000 are already on duty. For the last year 300 pilots a month have been trained at elementary schools, compared with 200 during the whole of the eight months preceding the war. Australian pilots are already in Canada for advanced training. New Zealand Service

In New Zealand more than 4000 men have been registered for training, and by the end of this year it will be possible to provide full training for 900 pilots annually and initial training for a further 500 and 1500 observers and air gunners, who will then complete their training in Canada. When working fully, New Zealand’s programme will provide 3700 trained men a year. By the end of this year New Zealand will have sent 1465 pilots, observers, and air gunners to Canada and Britain for advanced training. Between December and April next year, 24 pilots, 21 observers, and 134 wireless operators-air gunners from Newfoundland will begin training in Canada. The first contingent of 52 men arrived in the Dominion in August, 50 more in September, and another 50 are now due. At least 80 aerodromes —60 of them new—will be used when the scheme is complete in Canada. Twenty existing aerodromes have been, or are being, enlarged. It is estimated that 4000 aeroplanes will soon be in constant use.