American Military Training Aircraft

The U.S. did not become the world’s foremost military air power by accident. The learning curve—World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and more recently the war on terror—has been steep. While climbing this curve, the U.S. has not only produced superior military aircraft in greater numbers than its foes, but has—in due course—out-trained them, too. This book provides a comprehensive historical survey of U.S. military training aircraft, including technical specifications, drawings and photographs of each type of fixed and rotary-wing design used over a 98-year period to accomplish the first step of the learning process: the training of pilots and aircrews.

"This is a comprehensive study of the training aircraft used to transition the United States military into the jet age. After assembling the greatest air armada in history in World War II, the United States faced the challenges of the Cold War. High-performance jets replaced propeller fighters, and a new generation of pilots was needed. But military planners, reluctant to scrap the existing inventory of trainers, insisted these pilots earn their wings in airplanes designed in the 1930s. The attrition rate among newly winged pilots, assigned to jets that often exceeded their abilities, was appalling. Finally, in 1949, a privately funded jet trainer, the T-33 was developed, followed by the T-28 in 1950, the T-34 in 1953, and T-37 in 1957. Gradually, pilot proficiency improved, but the cycle is recurring as new trainers and teaching techniques are needed to replace the aging aircraft and methods of the past."--Jacket.

Military Flight training, 1907-1945.

Air Force book is an institutional history of flight training by the predecessor organizations of the United States Air Force. The U.S. Army purchased its first airplane, built and successfully flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright, in 1909, and placed both lighter- and heavier-than-air aeronautics in the Division of Military Aeronautics of the Signal Corps. As pilots and observers in the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Forces, Americans flew combat missions in France during the Great War. In the first postwar decade, airmen achieved a measure of recognition with the establishment of the Air Corps and, during World War II, the Army Air Forces attained equal status with the Army Ground Forces. During this first era of military aviation, as described by Rebecca Cameron in Training to Fly, the groundwork was laid for the independent United States Air Force. Those were

The volume at hand, Training to Fly: Military Flight Training, 1907-1945, isan institutional history of flight training by the predecessor organizations of theUnited States Air Force. The U.S. Army purchased its first airplane, built andsuccessfully flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright, in 1909, and placed bothlighter- and heavier-than-air aeronautics in the Division of Military Aeronauticsof the Signal Corps. As pilots and observers in the Air Service of the AmericanExpeditionary Forces, Americans flew combat missions in France during theGreat War. In the first postwar decade, airmen achieved a measure ofrecognition with the establishment of the Air Corps and, during World War 11,the Army Air Forces attained equal status with the Army Ground Forces.

The U.S. did not become the world's foremost military air power by accident. The learning curve--World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and more recently the war on terror--has been steep. While climbing this curve, the U.S. has not only produced superior military aircraft in greater numbers than its foes, but has--in due course--out-trained them, too. This book provides a comprehensive historical survey of U.S. military training aircraft, including technical specifications, drawings and photographs of each type of fixed and rotary-wing design used over a 98-year period to accomplish the first step of the learning process: the training of pilots and aircrews.

Introduces the various kinds of World War Two trainer planes, describes the missions for which they were used, and sketches the training required of their pilots. Also discusses what some of the airplanes were used for after World War 2.