page_title: Hendricks Army Airfield
section_title: Heavy bomber training
hierarchical_section_title: Hendricks Army Airfield / History / Heavy bomber training
caption_attribution_description: English: Hendricks Army Airfield - 1942 Yearbook - B-17 Engine maintenance
context_page_description: Hendricks Army Airfield was a World War II United States Army Air Forces base located 6.6 miles east-southeast of Sebring, Florida.
context_section_description: The base was renamed Hendricks Field on 14 January 1942. It was assigned to the Army Air Forces Training Command, Eastern Flight Training Center, 76th Flying Training Wing.  On 29 January 1942, the first B-17 Flying Fortress landed at Hendricks Field.  In peak operation about 120 B-17's were assigned and over 10,000 pilots and other crewmembers were trained.
  Initially the Combat Crew Training School consisted of one qualified B-17 pilot, one B-17 mechanic and one B-17 airplane. But this team trained additional pilots, and these additional pilots brought in other B-17s, with the result that an Instructors School was organized, and after one month's operations was able to make full use of the 10 B-17's later assigned to the field.
  March 1942 saw the beginning of the program which would train and coordinate combat crews; Pilot, Copilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Aerial Engineer, Radio Operator, and Gunners. With the arrival of additional B-17's came a staff of student instructors, both flying and ground school. And in short order the program was in full swing.  That program continued until the latter part of 1942, during which hundreds of combat crews were trained and dispatched to the European and North African Theatres of Operations, where they distinguished themselves in raids on enemy shipping, airfields and other ground installations.
  Later in 1942, the mission of Hendricks Field was changed. It was to be a specialized school for four-engine first pilots; other members of the combat crews would be assembled at other points after training at specialized schools for Copilots, Navigators, Bombardiers, Aerial Engineers, Radio Operators and Gunners.  Thousands of trained pilots were sent to Hendricks field to upgrade from single and twin engine ratings for transition.  During the war, graduates of the school produced B-17, B-24 and later, B-29 Superfortress flight crews.   In addition, the Hendricks Field ground school was regarded as one of the leading ones in the Army Air Forces.  Classes were taught in   navigations meteorology, radio and engineering.
  In an administrative reorganization by HQ Army Air Force, on 1 May 1944, numbered training units in the Zone of the Interior (ZI) (Continental United States) were re-designated as "Army Air Forces Base Units". At Hendricks, the 2137th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Pilot School, Specialized 4-Engine) became the flying training school. The operational squadrons of the school were also re-designated as "A" to "D". The training missions continued under these new designations.
caption: B-17 Engine maintenance
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