ORIGINAL: Greenhough222
from what i have read both US and british example flying training during the war was approximately 10 months in three phases elementry/basic/advanced there is no reason why japan counld not do exactly the same. If you assume one instructor per student (that is about right for current RAF flying training and allows for air and ground training) during each of the three phases for a nominal output of 100 trained pilots per month you would require 100 instructors per month of training. 10 months = 1000 instructors!
which seems too high, I am trying to find a source stating how many instructors per student were needed during the war but I have not found anything so far so far if anyone knows of any let me know.
It is too high. I find it hard to believe RAF is so inefficient - and I don't think this has any relation to WWII era training regimes. I will return with some data for you.
A pilot training program involves in the first instance four stages:
ground school (theory - no aircraft - but a pilot instructor per class)
primary flight training
intermediate flight training
advanced flight training
This Japan followed in three different forms: JAAF, JNAF regular pilots, and JNAF float pilots. All three programs had separate aircraft for the three stages of flight training. A typical ratio of pilots instructors to students was 1:12. However,
there also would be two more pilot officers per training battalion: a commanding officer and his number 2 or executive officer in US terminology. Since these programs were triangular, you got 5 pilots per 36 students. I think there were five JAAF schools before this was expanded by contract with civilian flying schools later in the war. These fed a number of specialized schools, including fighter schools (3), light and heavy bomber schools (2 each) and a reconnaissance school (1). It may be transport pilots were from heavy bomber schools, but also they came from nominally civil sources: Japan's aviation industry was para-military and most transport pilots (and even airline organizations) were JAAF reservists: a few exceptions (on flying boats) were in naval reserve service. Anyway the training periods in the type schools were of such length and staggered so that the five basic schools could feed them. It went something like this: one month at each stage of the basic training program (after some other military training not considered here) = 4 months to get out of basic flight training regiment. Then two more months in the type training regiment. Then you are considered a novice pilot unfit for combat who is ideally sent to some advanced training school or third line unit for seasoning in either the exact aircraft you are to fly, or something similar. At the time of mobilization (July 1941) the JAAF had "slots" for about 1154 student pilots. The total number of "real" pilots in training regiments was about 354. From this you might derive a ratio of 1 pilot to 3 students if total organizational numbers are of interest. About 180 student pilots enter basic flight training regiments each month and about 150 leave them to enter type training regiments for a loss rate of about 1 in 6. Most of the "lost" trainee pilots become aircrew of some kind (bombradiers or navigators in particular). Aircrew training graduated about 144 per month and ground crews considerably more: perhaps 1200 per month. In theory a pilot should spend three months in a third line or advanced training unit before being committed to combat. Excluding military service before entering a basic flight school, a JAAF pilot should expect 4 months in the basic training regiment, 2 months in the type training regiment, and 3 months in advanced training = 9 months of military flight schools, 8 of them actually flying something (although in the beginning these are very basic trainers). In some programs there might be one instructor per student in the first month of flight training - but it appears that it is more common for the students to take turns flying with the unit instructor - which is why the number of students is so low. Any given student only flies a few hours per month.
The navy program was radically different, far less efficient, and focused on much higher standards of training. It was also divided (originally) into two fundamentally exclusive programs: wheel and float, each in turn divided after advanced training into fighter and crew type aircraft. [Japan was the only nation ever to build training flying boats for example]
These programs demanded many more instructor/staff pilots in the training regime, but kept the students so much longer it actually graduated fewer of them per month! But that was only the beginning: the Navy required graduates of type schools to spend two full years more in third line or advanced training units - before posting to actual combat! A Navy student entering a flight training regiment could expect 8 months in the basic flight school, 4 months of type training, and 24 months of seasoning = 36 months (3 years) before being regarded as a second rate combat pilot! I no longer can remember the internal details, but a navy training group (two wheeled, one float) had 43 pilots total (including staff and commanders), and 84 students (if we only consider those who make it) - for a ratio of 1 pilot to 2 students. But they were kept so much longer it resulted in a very low graduation rate: only one wheeled class graduated per month (vice 5 for the army) - and only one float class every two months. The training groups were much larger than army training Sentai, but they had huge drop out rates, so that graduate rates were very low. The Navy (on mobilization in July 1941) had about 568 pilots in training groups - but was graduating slilghtly fewer pilots per month than the JAAF was - in spite of nearly twice the number of instructor/staff pilots and training aircraft! [The monthly rate averaged 126 - although it really alternated between 84 and 168 - depending on wether or not there was a float class that month: remarkably fewer for the rather greater number of pilots involved in training them compared to JAAF.]
A military pilot training program then involves another stage which in the US we call type training.
Here the students either fly crew trainers or they fly fighter planes, depending on their intended end type.
