[Milsurplus] Why There Were No Copilots

[bsugarberg at core.com]

Hello All, 

I thought that you might find the following
interesting.  

73, Bruce WA8TNC 
================  

>From "RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War" by
Dennis Richards: 

"To meet the demand for pilots their
courses in the OTU's had been shortened as noted, but this merely resulted
in a good supply of inadequately trained pilots. It was MacNeece Foster at
No. 6 (later 91) Group who suggested and campaigned for the solution: drop
the requirement for a second pilot, train the first one properly, and give
some other member of the crew enough training to fly the aircraft home in
an emergency. Also, as Harris insisted if Foster's plan (which he opposed)
was to be adopted, install an automatic pilot ("George") in
every bomber." 

"The 'single pilot' policy, the
foremost feature of what became called the 'New Deal' in training, came
into force in March 1942. As part of the same package, other important
changes were made in crewing. The observer had been responsible both for
navigation and, normally, for aiming the bombs. During the bombing run-up
it was difficult for him to concentrate on navigation, with the result
that he often became uncertain of the correct course for home. Known
henceforth as the navigator, he was relieved of his bomb aiming duty,
which went to a new member of the crew, the air bomber or bomb aimer - who
could also act in an emergency as front gunner. It was he in the medium
bombers, and another new member of the crew soon afterwards introduced for
the heavy bombers, the flight engineer, who now had to act as pilot's mate
and learn to handle the aircraft in an emergency. At the same time the
requirement for two wireless operators/air gunners in each medium or heavy
bomber was abandoned in favour of having one wireless operator/air gunner
and one 'straight' air gunner." 

>From other sources:  

"There are many examples of non pilots flying and landing the
aircraft, the case of Sgt. Stuart Nimmo Sloan being an example. He was an
air bomber with 431 Sqn. After the pilot had baled out, he flew the
aircraft back to the UK and successfully landed it. A well deserved CGM
resulted."  

>From "Flying into Hell" by Mel
Rolfe about a sortie in August 44:  

"F/O Bob Purvis said
"We got up to height and I switched on George, the automatic pilot,
which had not yet been perfected and was not totally reliable. One of the
crew used to stand in for me and I went to the Elsen at the rear of the
fuselage. There was no second pilot unless you trained them yourself. I
usually left the bomb-aimer or the engineer in charge. They could both
take over in an emergency, whether they could land or not is another
matter."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20171004/411aaa92/attachment.html>