Recent content by Reegor

As others have pointed out, the question does not fit the way decisions were made. (“Fighter pilots who enlisted.”) The training system had a major branch after “wings” were awarded, but it was usually to single versus multi-engine School. There were a variety of single-engine non-fighter...

If you are still interested, I have Air Pub 2099B,C, D, E, F (all one book) May 1944. It mentions the M-H regulators for the "Fortress III". Please send me an email.

Fantastic! Your Y1B-17 manual is now the earliest known Air Force manual with a procedure. November 1936/ Feb. 1937. I will have to revise something I wrote accordingly. Previously I listed a B-17 manual from July 1937. This is relevant to the often-repeated, but wrong, statement that...

Here's a more complete description. I can't locate my copy of Steinhoff's book, which had the original story. Even funnier is Gunter Rall's description of the US method (1950s):

Definitely true that Standard Procedure Flying was more important at early stages of training. In fact, even US fighter pilots moved away from emphasizing it once they got overseas. Heavy bomber pilots were the only ones who emphasized it during combat, due partly to the requirements of massive...

Good discussion. Yes, and the Japanese culture went well beyond initial selection. Around 1940 the USAAF started a shift to a "mass production" view of pilots, but no other air force did the same. I researched this mainly for Luftwaffe and US, but Japan appears to have been similar to Germany...

Fascinating video, The main chute opened with essentially zero altitude loss, and quite a bit of gain. Pilot's speed through the air (from rocket boost) pulled open the chute, and then somehow the chute pivoted UP while the pilot stayed at the same altitude. The shape of the chute is also...

If you have any data on accidents, I would love to see it. Training accidents or otherwise. I wrote an analysis of American accident rates versus German, and am always looking for more information. > These records tend to be all lumped in together, as far as I can tell. Yes, this is quite...

Thanks so much for this 1939 manual! I've been looking for pre-WW2 manuals for this aircraft so this is quite helpful. It appears, from the pictures, to be the "rigging and assembly" instructions. I have a 1939 Australian operating manual which looks quite amateur by comparison.

Stig - that is fantastic. I will try to decipher the original source. Google Translate to the rescue.

Fusing of bombs in WW 2 was prone to errors. There were deliberately many steps needed to arm a bomb. Then there were different ways to "tell" a bomb to actually detonate: delay, barometric, etc. A plane that crashed should never have its bombs go off, unless eventually a fire sets off the...

For additional data organized by topic, see the seven volumes of THE ARMY AIR FORCES in World War II Edited by WESLEY JAMES and FRANK CRAVEN. Each volume includes footnotes, index, maps, and glossary. The first volume has filename AFD-101105-005-1.pdf which you can search on. The seven...

I recommend scribd.com which has a lot of books on this period. 5 by Lundstrom including both the above. also Kaigun, Sunburst, Eagle again the Sun. Many Osprey books. I’ve been a member for ~10 years. Lots of fiction as well eg Larry Bond About $100/year Canread offline, but cannot...

WW2 was an industrial war. Which airplane was hottest was only one criteria. The original post was about the comparative number that could be produced of different aircraft. Especially early in the War, production rates were a major problem. And I think the OP's original numbers, man-hours to...

13 out of 81 is 16% of those who were killed. But the OP was saying that 10% of ALL pilots were killed in accidents (not just in training). That is presumably much higher. Thanks for the mention of Bud Anderson - I will take a look, since I'm trying to get a better handle on accident rates in...