Page 34 - Volume 13 Number 6

A PT-17 taxies to the hangar at Moton Field near Tuskegee, Alabama, after a flight. The facility served as the primary training base for African-American cadets before gradu- ates transitioned to basic and advanced training at other airfields. As of 2018, Moton Field is preserved and adminis- tered by the U.S. National Park Service. The control tower and two hangars serve as museums to tell the story of the famed “Tuskegee Airmen.” (Courtesy U.S. Air Force AETC History Office)
A Boeing/Stearman Model 75 in the livery of a U.S. Navy N2S-3 (flown by Larry Tobin), accompanied by
a Stearman Model 4DM (flown by Addison Pember- ton) were photographed flying at an altitude of 7,500 feet near Mount Spokane in the vicinity of Spokane, Washington. The N2S-3 served as an instrument flying trainer during World War II. (George Perks)
particularly in the vast Pacific Theater of Operations. Before the war training at Pensacola and Jacksonville, Florida, was accelerated, along with instruction at Corpus Christi, Texas. Pensacola became a major training hub for naval aviators, graduating as many as 1,100 pilots each month by the time America entered the war. The Navy’s flying course was similar to that of the Army Air Corps, but the Navy did not use contract flight schools. Instead, Navy officials continued flight instruction at Naval Reserve Bases and later a series of
training facilities that operated under the Air Primary Training Command.
It is interesting to note that during the war years the rugged biplanes built by the Wichita Division drew praise from senior officers of the United States Army Air Forces for their reliability and ease of maintenance. General Harper, assistant chief of air staff for training, told the joint Aircraft Committee that the Army Air Forces Training Command thought highly of the Stearman trainers, but cast dispersions on the monoplane Fairchild PT­23: “The PT­17 has proven to be a most satisfactory type and maintenance difficulties negligible compared to the Fairchild wooden types. The wood aircraft will not stand up in the hot, dry climate where many of our schools are located, and much difficulty is being experienced with the PT­23 due to vibration trouble.”
By early 1945 World War II was entering its final phase of bloodshed. Germany’s military machine and war production were slowly disintegrating under the combined weight of relentless bombardment by the U.S. Eighth Army Air Force and Great Britain’s Royal Air Force, while American, British, Canadian and French forces drove the Nazis back into the Fatherland and the Soviet juggernaut crushed Hitler’s Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Germany surrendered in May but the Japanese fought on until September when Emperor Hirohito brought an end to hostilities.
32 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2019