F48023 US NAVY / USMC FIGHTER PILOT WWII FOR CARRIER-BASED AIRCRAFTS

At the start of World War II in the Far East, the US Navy had nine aircraft carriers that served in the Atlantic and Pacific. However, in the period 1941-1945, thanks to the use of the enormous production potential of American shipyards, the US Navy gained several dozen fleet (mainly Essex) and escort (mainly Casablanca) aircraft carriers, surpassing the Japanese Navy in this field. Of course, the main weapon of UA Navy carriers was their on-board aviation. During World War II, the US Navy introduced several successful types of aircraft, among which one could indicate: the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bomber, the Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane or the very successful Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, which it replaced in 1942-1943 in this role. Grumman F4F Wildcat. It is also worth adding that the US Navy implemented an effective Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1935, which was modernized during World War II (exactly in 1940-1945). It consisted of four training stages ( pre-flight, primary, basic, and advanced), as a result of which each of his graduates finished it with about 600 hours of flight, of which 200 hours were spent on the machine on which he was to fly. It is worth adding that the US Navy pilot training system turned out to be highly effective, and approximately 61,500 pilots completed it in 1942-1945. At the same time, the Japanese Navy trained 2.5 times fewer pilots, which translated into the poor quality of Japanese naval and on-board aviation in 1944-1945.