Show Diet ct at Flying Centers Makes U. U S. S Airmen Tops By DEVON FRANCIS Wide ide World Aviation A Editor ORANGEBURG S. S C. C Feb 24 In In a white clapboard building a few miles from the farming r community of r First I o 0 or Of Th Three ree a quiet fellow named John i Articles Nolan goes through a daily dally routine of wrestling wrestling wrestling wres wres- with a food calory chart and the story of Americas America's growing air power can very well start in John Nolans Nolan's kitchen The connection between that kitchen and the pronounced superiority of volunteer United States warplane pilots over their Japanese antagonists on the Burma air front becomes clear only after you begin exploring the ingeniously coordinated system system tem tern of aviation training now in effect throughout the nations nation's tier southern-tier states There are scores of ot John Nolans Nolans Nolans No No- lans in the system because proper diet is vital to air fight fight- ing There are scores of kitchens kitch kitch- ens There are scores of training training training train train- ing fields There are hundreds of instructors and thousands of airplanes There are or will be tens of thousands of aviation cadets who get sick to the stomach when they first experience a slow roll and who weeks later go through their slow rolls with witha a mathematical precision which has become second nature Air Power Vital VitalIn In the final analysis air power means man power and John Nolan who used to be an as assistant assistant assistant as- as steward at New Yorks York's Roosevelt hotel prepares his daily dally menus for the physical well-being well of men who presently will be fighting on the air fronts of three continents The vitamin A in the carrots served in the aviation cadet mess at the air corps elementary training school in Orangeburg S. S C. C makes its contribution to victory for the nations nation's armed forces in Europe Africa and Asia f The army has set for itself the goal of producing not only the worlds world's biggest air force in combination combination com corn with its allies in the war effort but also also in in point of training training the the best The ex ex- extraordinary extraordinary superiority of the American volunteer pilots in Burma where the 3 Japanese ha have e met with consistent reverses inthe in inthe the air indicates the army has a running start on the job The nature of ot the training system system tem tern accounts for part of their success Mechanical aptitude which comes come from froth the almost universal driving of automobiles in this country accounts for another another another an an- other part of it Finally American American Amerlean Amer Amer- ican lean youth has a grim determination determination determination nation to learn to fly Call Ita it ita ita a divine spark or what you will its it's there If I get busted out of here one of the aviation cadets here at the Hawthorne school of aeronautics told me sucking in his breath involuntarily Well involuntarily Well WellI I I dont don't know what Id I'd do Being busted out means flunking flunking flunking flunk flunk- ing the elementary course course He had had a bad day He had messed up his spot landings His training plane landed short of or beyond the point on the airport where he wanted to put it He had just had a session with his instructor and had come away scared scared scared-scared scared th that thit t he might never become an army pilot You see he explained when 1 am on a solo flight I feel like a king I can do anything with my airplane Then the instructor tor climbs in and rides along and I seem to freeze up and do everything wrong But they cant can't bust me out They just cant can't do it I asked his instructor about him allright all allright allright Oh hes he's going to be right said the instructor All AIl these young fellows worry at atone atone atone one time or another If they didn't worry and get tense and upset about the progress of their training we wouldn't hav have the worlds world's best pilots Captain Colin Celia Kelly elly who sank the Japanese battleship Haruna and gave up his life in doing it very likely worried too when he was a fledgling pilot The American system of military military mili mill tary pilot training now geared to absorb applicants a month for the army alone grew out of a two-pronged two attack on the problem by the department of commerce and the armed services In 1939 Robert S. S Hinckley assistant secretary of commerce for air established a series of ot civilian training schools for elementary elementary elementary ele ele- ele- ele instruction in flying At Atthe Atthe Atthe the same time the army began gradually to increase its aviation aviation aviation avia avia- tion cadet quotas With the world still at peace the United States characteristically was lagging far behind its potential axis enemies in expanding its military Called for Expansion As late as the spring of 1940 before the German drive through the low countries and into France the objective of ot the air corps was the processing of candidates for pilot training a year and a line first-line warplane air force of machines In May President Roosevelt called for an air force of planes and basic instruction for foran foran foran an equal number of pilots in the next 12 months Since then there have been no way half-way measures Both the manufacturing manufacturing manufacturing turing and the cadet training programs have been expanded progressively The network of elementary civilian contract schools run privately under air corps supervision supervision supervision super super- vision of which the Hawthorne school is one is a product of the scheme devised by Hinckley by almost three years ago with the blessing of the White House Foresaw Air Value Official Washington was longheaded longheaded longheaded long long- headed enough to see that the that the world might be on fire again 20 years after Versailles and that air power probably would play playa a major role in the decision The fall of France found the United States with a tidy reserve of ot well-trained well civilian fliers Those fliers today are here herein herein herein in Orangeburg and at dozens dozen of other elementary flight centers showing dodoes as dodoes as candidates for air training are called what called what it takes to fly an airplane The training centers run by bythe bythe bythe the army Itself concern themselves themselves themselves them them- selves only with later phases of the instruction When a student emerges from nine weeks in an elementary school he has a pretty fair chance of winning his wings Brother students lacking an aptitude have been busted out The course at the schools is hard It has to be to produce superlative pilots The standards though they have just been changed to provide a potential reservoir of young candidates for pilot trainIng training training train train- ing each 12 months remain high S Start at Daybreak Cadets are sitting in their planes their engines ticking over before up sun-up waiting for official daylight to take of oft off f. f When they ar are not flying they are in class class' learning what makes an airplane fly how an engine is constructed primary navigation and meteorology They eat ravenously At midmorning midmorning midmorning mid- mid morning a biscuit wagon is rolled from the mess hall to the flying line so instructors and students can have a snack before before before be be- fore lunch After dinner the students study if they are not too sleepy We have a hard time keeping them out of bed until the lights go out at commented Beverly Beverly Bev Bay erly Howard civilian operator of the school They are that tired But they get used to the rigorous rigorous rigorous rig rig- orous routine Its all a matter of habit remarked William G. G Catron the schools school's flight director who used to be an inspector for the civil aeronautics administration in California |