Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-01-27 | Page 8 | France Orders Air Force Boost

! FRANCE ORDERS ! AIR FORCE BOOST j PARIS. Jan. XT Franc h I ordered a M per cent incroaa In I tht (MrwmiMl of .her air forr for j Jumping her air army to M.ooo i mn, j Th locreae lateat alep In a program which haa doubled th alu f tha air army In four yaara will glv Franc an actlv and flrat lint , rarv of mor than a quartar of a j million pllota and mechanic. For. deipite th fact that Franc haa many limn mor pilola and mechanlca than aha haa planee. th mult of th French air aervlce training iyntem la quantity rathr than quality. IVfort la Krrlou In lh opinion of foreign obeerv- ra thla rank a defect almoat aa afrioua aa th limited production of ' plan. They catimaia that faulty ' training aharaa almoat qually with faulty machln in raponiblllty for th larg number of craahea arh year. In a nutahcll, amy foreign air perta, tha French ayatem of "farming "farm-ing out1 pilota to private achoola for training haa limited tha efficiency effi-ciency of tha flying aervice. The achoola train men to fly before they have found out If they are really auitabl material for the air army Low educational and phyairal requirement, re-quirement, they add. have not . helped to rata th atandard. No lndiemente Tha French government doea not hold out tnducamenta to young Frenchman to enter tha air aervica. Nona ara needed for tha ordinary llfa of a eonacript In tha air corpa la ao auperior to that of a eonacript eon-acript In tha ground army that ap- . plicanta alwaya exceed th number of place. Tha vaet majority of eonacripta. ar trained aa mechanlce and plana . handler. It la only after tha con-rriot con-rriot period la ended that thoe who lct to remain ara given training aa pllota and allowed to take their examination! to become noncom-miaaioned noncom-miaaioned and commlaaioned offl-aere. offl-aere. Thaaa men, Ilk th officer graduate grad-uate of 81. Cyr. tha French Went Point, ar ant to th govarnmant'a wn training achool at latrea In tha aouth of Franca. Thera they atudy for a year and ara graduated aa oneommiaaloned pllota. (1 I School a Afterward they ara ordered to aquadron achoola, where they undergo un-dergo pc!alled training In pur-auit. pur-auit. obarvation or bombardment work before Joining the unlta to which they hav been aaaignad. j . Tha achool at litre, however. I not larg and. while th pllota grsd-, grsd-, uatad from there ar th elite of th air eervlc. they ar In a minority. minor-ity. Moat of th pilot ara man who have anliatad In tha army and re- quatd flying detail In advance) of I their normal eonacript period. Thee ara tha men who ar farmed out" to varloua private fly- Ing achoola where they atudy at 1 . govmment bbo. Th'a natural i reeult la that tha achoola tend to become "pilot mill." In order to keep their governmental contracta they turn out men who know how to fly the email training plan, but 4 whoaa real qualiflcationa for tha air ' aervica hav been scarcely eonatd-; eonatd-; ered.