OCR Text |
Show WASHINGTON, Dec. 11. An appeal by Premier Clemenceau of Franco for an American contribution of two thousand thou-sand planes n month, and a total of five thousand aviators and fifty thousand thou-sand specialized mechanics formed the basiB for the aircraft program to which the Unjtod States committed itself in the war. This was disclosed today by Major General William L. Kenly, director direc-tor of military aeronautics, in his annual an-nual reporL "This country has never trained aviators avi-ators sufficiently to meet the demands of overseas warfare," General Kenly points out in illustrating tho difficulties difficul-ties the government faced in trying to meet tho urgent appeal made by Franco. "It had not tho slightest instructors nocessary for photography, or other purposes or tho necessary men to maintain the machines. Consequently tho men trained themselves before training others and experiences led from one course to what was to come next." Despite this handicap 4980 men had been graduated as reserve military aviators, avi-ators, tho first rating for pilots by Juno 30, 191S, tho report says, and 110 bombing pilots, -104 observers. 389 observer ob-server pilots and 311 pursuit pilots had been graduated on that dae from the advanced training schools. In tho year ending last June 30 there woro 152 fatalities in trainirfg, or an average -of one death to 2682 hours and 201,000 miles flown. Stalled engines, en-gines, usually due to an error of the pilot, caused 86 deaths; collisions 30 and sideslips 10, "Regrettable as these accidents are," the report says, "it is felt that considering consid-ering tho newness of the sincere the early state of development of pianos, the inexperience in instruction and tho necessity of teaching stunts, in themselves them-selves rather dangerous, this number is not large. As a matter or aerial etatistics, fatalities in American train ing wore not more than half as large j as thoso of tho other allied countries. I Tho report says that 440 balloon officers of-ficers also had been graduated, 165 of which were fully qualified observers during the year. |