Night Fighter Pilots

[YM]

I would be interested to know if night fighter pilots
were selected to different standards than regular
daytime pilots. It would seem to me that there is
a greater problem of disorientation and vertigo
at night because of the lack of visual cues, as
compared to the daytime. Of course there were
instruments to help, but I imagine one had to
be trained to react to the instruments as opposed
to normal visual cues.

Thank you.

[simon]

I believe all pilots were trained in Blind flying, night fighter pilots possibly had a better aptitude for blind flying but on the other hand they had far more practice at it.

[YM]

Your reply brings me to clarify my question.
Could any day fighter pilot be reassigned
to night fighters, or were they specially
chosen? Besides the "blind" flying ability,
there was also the matter that night fighters
were (mostly or always) two-engined (although
I believe the Wild Sau Germans used single-
engine aircraft). Did this also make a difference,
or could day fighter pilots easily make the
switch to the twin-engine aircraft?

[Ricky]

As far as I know, when pilots were in training they were divided up into 'single engine & multi-engine types depending on their abilities. Whether they flew a fighter or a bomber depended on their temperament (and, to a limited degree, their size).

As far as I know, any pilots transferring from single-engine to multiple engine needed to go on a short conversion course in handling multi-engined planes.

All this is from hazy memory, so confirmation or correction is looked forward to!

[curmudgeon]

quote:Originally posted by Ricky

As far as I know, when pilots were in training they were divided up into 'single engine & multi-engine types depending on their abilities. Whether they flew a fighter or a bomber depended on their temperament (and, to a limited degree, their size).

As far as I know, any pilots transferring from single-engine to multiple engine needed to go on a short conversion course in handling multi-engined planes.

All this is from hazy memory, so confirmation or correction is looked forward to!


Townsend's 'Duel in the Dark', Chisholm's 'Cover of Darkness' and Rawnsley & Wright's 'Night Fighter' are essential reading for this topic - at least so far as RAF doctrine is concerned.

[pmjwright]

...as does "First Light" by Geoff Wellum.

YM: quote:Could any day fighter pilot be reassigned
to night fighters, or were they specially
chosen? Besides the "blind" flying ability,
there was also the matter that night fighters
were (mostly or always) two-engined (although
I believe the Wild Sau Germans used single-
engine aircraft). Did this also make a difference,
or could day fighter pilots easily make the
switch to the twin-engine aircraft?
Early in the war, yes. Starting around the London Blitz, many Spitfire and Hurricane pilots were forced into flying night patrol ops with those day fighters. It was a make-do solution to the problem of night bomber raids, for at that time of the war, there was simply no effective night fighter aircraft and no specially trained pilots. (that's why I mention the above book, some great chapters about night flying and attempted interceptions in Spits).

Once the a/c and supporting radar equipment etc were developed, then aircrews were specially trained for the role.

Ricky gave a good answer for the Q on conversion to twin-engine a/c--for the most part, selection was done initial training stage, there was not much conversion from single to multi. As much by choice as by policy!

[ChrisMcD]

Hajo Herrman and a lot of the other Wilde Sau pilots were trained as as bomber pilots.

In particular they were much better trained in bad weather and instrument flying.

I get the impression that a lot of them found it much harder to shoot down bombers than they had expected. But then the difference between the 'experten' and the rest always seems a bit surprising.