Page 94 - Demo
P. 94
94more than trebling the previous rate and requiring a huge expansion of training facilities. At the time, this domestic requirement precluded any space being allocated to Great Britain, even if that had been possible, which it was not, because of the constraints imposed by the US Neutrality Laws. Nevertheless, the Roosevelt Administration came increasingly to appreciate that the UK actually constituted America%u2019s first line of defence and ways and means were devised to overcome these limitations. There were eventually five American schemes. *%u0017%u0006%u0001%u00179%%u0017)*%u0017%%u0006%u000c&*%u0013%u0013+). During the summer of 1940 the Air Ministry asked Clayton Knight, an American who was already quietly recruiting American pilots to fly with the RCAF as instructors and/or to ferry aeroplanes across the Atlantic, to see if he could find some specifically for the RAF. Since 1939 the US Civil Aeronautics Authority had been offering college students the opportunity to learn to fly under a scheme intended to create a national reserve of part8trained pilots; this was not unlike our own RAFVR but without the military trimmings.19 As a result, there was a large pool of young Americans with approaching 100 hours under their belts but whocould not afford to pay for the extra time necessary to reach the 150 hours required by the British. In August 1940, and with tacit US sanction, Knight was permitted Fig 4. Annual WOp/AG & Flt Eng Output from the UK and Canada %%u0003flffi!%u00099%u0001):%u0018%u0015%u0018%u0018%u0001%u0017%u00011)%u0019%u0001%u0019%u0008%u0010%u000c%u000f%u0001;ffiffl%u000c%u000c%u000f7%u0001\

