Page 32 - Volume 13 Number 6

An aging N2S-2, of which 125 were manufactured, awaits its next flight at a naval air station in 1943. The ship featured a new national insignia that included rectangles flanking the star and circle.
(Erwin J. Bulban via Jay Miller)
instructors and other individuals. Of these, 233,198 completed primary training, with a majority of those earning their wings flying the Boeing/Stearman PT­13 or PT­17. Another 202,986 men and women graduated from basic flight training and 193,440 completed advanced courses. Of these, 102,907 eventually flew single­engine fighters and 90,533 took the controls of multi­engine bombers and transports.
Meanwhile, back in Wichita the production of primary trainers for the Air Corps and Navy flight schools accelerated after Dec. 7, 1941. Earlier that year the factory had already delivered the 2,000th Stearman airplane (a PT­17) Aug. 27, only five months since delivering the 1,000th trainer, and national defense plans called for the Wichita Division to build as many as 2,000 trainers annually.
Major George H. Brett, one of the Air Corps’ strongest proponents of air power, commented on the delivery in a letter to Julius Schaefer:
“This is an outstanding contribution to the national defense program. Aug. 27 should be a red­letter day in your company’s production history and a day that you deserve the right to be proud of. We appreciate that it has taken a lot of hard work, effort and time to accomplish this tremendous production, and may I extend my congratulations and the thanks of the entire Air Corps to you and your entire organization for your outstanding production of primary trainers.”
Still, the frenetic pace of the war efforts left no time for future celebration as the 3,000th, 4,000th, 5,000th and 6,000th ship rolled off the final assembly lines like clockwork. In one month alone, April 1943, manufacture of Air Corps PT­13, PT­17 and Navy N2S­series biplanes reached 275 ships, and one of those was the 7,000th built.
30 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
In a brief ceremony held that month in the bustling Plant I complex, General Raymond G. Harris, in charge of the Midwest Procurement Division of the Army Air Corps, and Lieutenant Commander R.G. Vaughn, resident military official at the factory, officially accepted the aircraft. Pressure to build more trainers and build them faster was a constant companion of every employee at the Wichita Division. As General Yount constantly preached to his subordinates, the key to America winning the war was getting pilots to the front lines as quickly as possible.
It was impossible, however, to prepare a pilot for every situation he would encounter in the dangerous skies above Hitler’s “Fortress Europe” and the vast Pacific Ocean. Every effort was made to give airmen the best training possible under time constraints, but senior officers of the Air Corps and Navy knew that no amount of training, no matter how extensive, could thoroughly prepare pilots for aerial combat.
After listening to combat veterans complain about inadequate training of replacement pilots, General Yount summed up the situation well: “There is not a thing that you have said that is not true. All we need is about two years to train each one of these pilots to do just what you would like. I wish we had more time. General Arnold is enthused about giving us more time if we can work it out, but to date, the problem has been to get more men to the front! Every criticism you have made we are thoroughly cognizant of; we have done our best to correct it. I am not saying that by way of alibi, because we know the shortcomings that our pilots have.”
In an effort to get those pilots to the front more quickly, by 1943 more than 50 Contract Primary Training Schools were operating in the United States. These schools were administered under the watchful eye of the Civil Aeronautics Authority that provided facilities and personnel while the Air Corps provided textbooks, a standard curriculum and training aircraft including the PT­13 and PT­17. The schools were closely monitored by
JUNE 2019