Page 84 - Demo

84wartime output of the Egyptian system would have amounted to something like 1,500 trained pilots.1 Meanwhile, substantial numbers of Canadians had been joining the RFC, most of them drawn from the trenches in France. A March 1916 decision, to increase squadron establishments from twelve to eighteen aeroplanes, meant a 50% increase in the demand for pilots overnight followed, in June, by an edict that would virtually double the size of the RFC to fifty8six squadrons. This rate of expansion made it worth setting up a dedicated training system in Canada and this began to operate in February 1917. Orders were placed for the American Curtiss JN84, the %u2018Jenny%u2019, to be built in Canada and seven aerodromes were constructed, mostly along the north shore of Lake Ontario. RFC (Canada) eventually had sixteen training squadrons organised into three wings. Under a reciprocal arrangement, which saw some 400 American cadets (and 2,000 mechanics) being trained by the RFC, two of the wings spent the winter of 1917818 near Fort Worth to take advantage of the weather factor. They might have been better off in Florida, because the day after the RFC arrived at Benbrook it was under three inches of snow, although, being in Texas, this did not last, of course. The third wing stayed behind to develop winter flying techniques, which it did, quite successfully and, had the war gone on, the RAF had Curtiss %u2018Jennies%u2019 of No 87 CTS at Benbrook TX %u2013 winter 1917?18.