Commonwealth Air Training Plan
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (also Empire Air Training Scheme , Empire Air Training Plan , Joint Air Training Scheme or The Plan ) was a comprehensive program for the training of aviation personnel during the Second World War in the Commonwealth . Were involved in the UK , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , South Africa and Southern Rhodesia .
Pilots , navigators , radio operators , bombardiers , gunneries and flight engineers were trained within the program . Most of the flying training took place in Canada. An extensive infrastructure with 231 airfields and numerous associated buildings was created for this purpose. In total, over 10,000 trainer aircraft were purchased. The training airfields typically had three runways, each 760 m long, arranged in a triangular shape. This enabled a simplified school operation, as crosswind influences were minimized during take-off and landing.
The program was started in December 1939 and ran until March 1945. From the end of 1944, no new training courses were started. Over 167,000 people were trained. In 1974, a lake in northern Manitoba was named Commonwealth Lake in memory of the program .
