YELLOW WINGS Part 1 - THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN

THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN
1939-1945
Canada had plenty of room for flight training, good flying weather, and was beyond the reach of enemy forces. The B.C.A.T.P., created by an agreement in December 1939 between Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, called for Canada to train these countries’ air crews. It was an enormous undertaking. Ottawa administered the Plan and paid most of the costs, although the majority of graduates, eventually drawn from many Allied countries, went on to serve in Britain’s Royal Air Force.
At its peak, the Plan maintained 231 training sites and required more than 10,000 aircraft and 100,000 military personnel to administer. It trained pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, radio operators, air gunners, and flight engineers. More than half of its 131,553 graduates were Canadian.