The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-16

l AmWWM
 or so ago.
 Building an air force of that sig means development along threC parallel lines-production of planes construction of air fields, training of pilots The pilots and the fields must be ready first or what good are the planes?
 Starting of with 2000 planes and about that many pilots, the army has expanded It's program steadily setting new objectiveS before the old ones could. be reached. First 1t was to get $500 planes and 1000 pic lots by June, 194l. That goal was just set when demands were made for 25,000 new planes with 12,000 new pilots. That is the current ob- jective, but even before 1t can be achieved, the program has been stepped up again.
 NEED
 5000 PILOTS
 The fifth supplemental defense bill, just passed by Congress, car- ried appropriations for an addi- tional 36OO bombers-first step to- wards the 50,0O0 plane goal-and Q training program looking to the ul- timate goal of 30,000 new pilots Q year, which would be sufficient to handle e 5000 plane force in com bat, allowing for reserve and re- placements.
 So stupendous has been this ex- pansion Job that army air corps has recently established 0 new statisti- cal division to keep track of its pro- jects.
 Airport construction and im- provement, for instance. Is Q major problem. Fifty new military air. ports have been put into service this year, bringing to about 200 the number of air corps depots, bases and stations. This number, how ever, won't even begin to handle the 25,00O planes already contracted for and WPA, which has been mak- ing relief projects out of much of this airport expansion, has had $50 additional sites certified to 1t by the armed forces for defense develop fllent.
 Even this won't be enough, though the air corps planning division can't tell where 1t wants these additional fields, as land must be acquired quietly, to keep prices down. School expansion must be planned for, too. On March 9 the first class of 2000 cadets began 90 weeks training under the program aimed to turn out 1000 pilots Q month.
 These men spend five weeks in replacement centers, the first week being for examination, inoculation and military ground training. Then for six weeks they will receive ele- mentary flight training at a civilian school, and finally get 10 weeks each at army basic and advanced schools, graduating in October as second lieutenants in the air corps reserve and being assigned to duty.
 The men who wash out" in this grind and don't make the grade as pilots are assigned to duty as navi- gators, bombardiers, engineers and armament officers. So rigid are re- quirements for this training, only five out of eight students become pilots. To obtain 30,000 pilots year, 48,o00 men must be given the course. WON'T
 LOWER STANDARDS
 The frequently heard talk that both army and navy will have to lower present standards which re- quire two years of college or Its equivalent and the passing of stiff general examination before an applicant can be considered for air corps training, L5 not now given serious consideration.
 As long as the 4000 men a month can be found with these mental qualifications, the bars will not be let down and so fer there has been no difficulty in finding volunteers to meet these requirements.
 To maintain the 60,000 plane 30000 pilot force, however, an en. listed personnel must be recruited at the rate of almost 1000 a month As long as the one-year selective service law is in effect, none oi these men will be conscripts for the simple reason that 22 weeks oi s<A polling are required to turn out an aviation technician.
 All these men, therefore, are three-year volunteers and they arc the men who become the radio op. orators, photographers, supply men bomb sight technicians, parachute riggers, weather men and me- chanics.
 It takes @ little of everything tc make an air corpc, including money What the whole air effort is costing is buried in the mazes of govern. mental bookkeeping that maybe the new air corps statistical section will get to some time soon, but not to-