AIR SUPERIORITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 307, 30 December 1942, Page 4

AIR SUPERIORITY

HARD STUDY NEEDED TRAINING CORPS’ FUNCTION “It is our aim to have every Air Training Corps cade: attain the educational standard which will enable him to pass the Air Force entrance examination by the time he has reached the age of 18.” said the Commandant of the New Zealand Air Tiaining Corps, Wing-Commander G. Nicholls, in a broadcast address this week. “When this stage is reached. A.T.C. training will be providing its greatest assistance to the Air Force, and will provide the greatest benefit to the individual airmen of the future.” New technical developments In aviation and new methods of employment of aviation, were increasing rapidly, and therefore requiring more intensive training to keen pace with them, the* speaker said. Flying was, and always would be, a young man's job. The earlier education in aviation began the better. The 1943 programme could include large numbers of boys of 16 who had iust left school, and boys of 15 attending secondary schools. Membership of the A.T.C. involved no obligation to join the Air Force, but it provided the training essential to Air Force service. Reviewing oast operations. WinerCommander Nicholls said that 1942 could be regarded as a successful year. Months ago, the first cadets were mobilised and each succeeding month saw a flow of keen young men into the ranks of the R.N.Z.A.F. The first drafts of cadjts did not receive the full benefit of the A.T.C. course, but with each succeeding draft the standard of efficiency increased. A large number of ex-cadets had already begun their flying training. Speaking of the vital part the A.T.C. was designed to play in building up a’r superiority for the United Nations fh° speaker said it was recognised throughout the world as being the foundation of air force training. From its start in England it had grown to tremendous proportions in all parts of th' British Commonweal*h and the United States was providing for an organisation with a membership of 2,000.000 cadets. Aviation entailed intensive study of a large number of highly technical subjects, the founda'ion of which should be laid before the age of 18. “No young man should wait till he is old enough for Air Force service to make himself proficient in aviation